Local volunteer group leader wins statewide Watershed Hero award
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CANAAN -- The West Virginia Watershed Network presented its 2023 Watershed Hero award to
Dr. Kelley Flaherty, executive director of the Save the Tygart Watershed Association.
The award was presented during the Watershed Symposium, held at Canaan Valley Resort.
Flaherty was honored for her work for the Save the Tygart Watershed Association and for watershed work in general. Since starting to work for the association through the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Watershed Pilot Program, she has chalked up many successes, officials said.
Flaherty worked with the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center to secure a Brownfields Cleanup Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. This led to the association taking ownership of the former Carr China pottery factory.
The association is currently rehabilitating the site as the Morrosco Nature Center, the Carr China Historical Center, and the Tygart Valley River Watershed Park and Environmental Center. Flaherty has recruited architecture students from Fairmont State University to draw up attractive visions of what the park and center might look like.
With her leadership, the association has also partnered with the West Virginia Water Research Institute to complete two Clean Water Act §319 projects, which address some of the streams that have been most damaged by mine drainage in the watershed.
One of these projects contributed to a major project by the DEP which will treat the Left Fork of Little Sandy Creek, which has been called the second worst stream in the state. The other project is reducing the load of acid mine drainage in a tributary to Roaring Creek near Coalton in Randolph County.
Flaherty has participated on behalf of Save the Tygart in the AML Work group, a group of watershed organizations advising the DEP about using Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding to improve water quality affected by drainage from abandoned mines.
She also organized an event now called the Tygart Valley River Rally, which included live music, food trucks and shuttles for paddling on the Tygart River. Association officials are looking forward to seeing the event grow to the point where hundreds will come to love the Tygart River even more.
Flaherty has also organized events for the wider community outside the Tygart River watershed.
She organized a Women on the Water workshop at Fairmont State University, where she teaches. The workshop brought together young women from 10th grade through college to talk about the exciting careers women can have in environmental science, and some of the challenges they face. The workshop included a field trip to monitor water quality in a local stream.
The West Virginia Watershed Network comprises nonprofits as well as state and federal agencies who support the work of watershed groups.