PIttsburgh Pirates owner’s shooting range polluted Pa. stream with lead

At the bottom of a ravine in Forbes State Forest, Eric Harder stood above clear water running over what looked like the perfect stream. “Blue Hole Creek is, I would say, Southwest Pennsylvania famous,” said Harder. The stream flows east off a ridge, passing a popular backpacking trail, and offers the public a well-used swimming hole to cool off in during the summer. “Me personally, I swim in Blue Hole, or I used to at least,” said Harder, who works at Mountain Watershed Association, a local environmental watchdog, as the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper. “I would filter water when I go backpacking. But beyond that, there’s miles of what used to be really good trout fishery.” Harder had to use the past tense because there’s not much trout fishing in Blue Hole Creek anymore. In 2021, the state Department of Environmental Protection received a complaint about potential sewage pollution in the stream and milky white coloring in the stream. The agency found the source of the coloring was not sewage