The watershed has a rich history and is loved like family by the residents there.
Dunkard Creek meanders 38 miles along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
On Oct. 9, 1767, surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon crossed the creek three times drawing what became to be known as the Mason-Dixon Line.
It was near Dunkard Creek where their survey mission ended because their Native American guides refused to go any farther for fear of encountering Indians on the war path.
Route 7 follows Dunkard Creek through western Monongalia County.
Signs rally support for the local high school, Clay-Battelle, near Blacksville.
In several places along the road, local residents sell fresh produce out of the back of pick up trucks.
There are a few new housing developments, but the further west you go, you see mostly towns.
In the Mason-Dixon Historical Park’s red barn, pictures chronicle events such as the Dunkard Creek flood in 1941.
Dunkard Creek Watershed Association President Betty Wiley looks at a photo of two girls walking down the main street in Blacksville, up to their waists in water.
“When that flood happened, it was the last day of school,” she said.
“Across the creek where my mom lives, she told me that water was in their house, up to two feet,” she said, “my dad jumped off the porch and swam.”
Wiley glances at another photo of her father smoking a pipe and holding his day’s fishing catch: seven fish.
Like many other residents, Wiley is outraged by the current fish kill.
“Dunkard Creek is a member of the family. And everyone is experiencing a nightmare. Can’t believe it’s true,” she said, “it’s grief, it’s real grief, like a member of the family died, only you can’t bury this one.”
“It’s still there, and you have to do something about it,” she said, “try to bring it back to life.”
But it won’t be easy. Dunkard Creek was one of only two tributaries of the Monongahela River in West Virginia that had mussels.
But West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Biologist Frank Jernejcic says they are wiped out.
“It’s a real tragedy that we have eliminated such a large population of animals that have been there for probably centuries,” he said.
The tragedy hit the residents in the watershed very hard.
Local resident Jesse Graham vividly remembers the first day he saw dead fish.
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“I had a deer come up the driveway I think looking for water. I’ve never had deer come up the driveway like that,” he said.
“They probably were used to drinking in the Dunkard, and they knew it wasn’t fit to drink.”
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The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection believes a golden algae bloom may be responsible for the fish kill.
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says the algae can flourish in areas with high chloride levels and other total dissolved solids, like the water now in Dunkard Creek.
But some biologists are saying the algae may be more of a symptom than the cause of the fish kill.
Betty Wiley wants more answers.
“They’ll have to find out what’s wrong, and stop it,” she said, “somebody will have to figure it out.”
Wiley wants the federal Environmental Protection Agency to take charge of the investigation.
The Dunkard Creek Watershed Association plans to schedule a public meeting on the fish kill in the near future.