Year Two of Largest Endangered Mussel Relocation in History

EnviroScience was awarded a contract through Michael Baker and PennDOT to continue the Hunter Station Bridge (SR 62) endangered mussel salvage and relocation project in Northwestern Pennsylvania over the Allegheny River. The contract is for $760,000 and includes extensive diving, mussel salvage, transport, coordination activities across the U.S., and on-site turbidity and construction monitoring to ensure environmental commitments have been met.

EnviroScience began Phase One in 2015 under a separate contract. Spanning a reach of the Allegheny River that contains the largest known populations of the federally and state-endangered Clubshell (Pleurobema clava) and Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma torulosa rangiana) mussels, this project is unique in scale. Over 85,000 endangered mussels may be salvaged from under the bridge prior to construction and relocated to augment or reintroduce the species to various locations across their original range. Relocation areas include streams in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the Salamanca Reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians.

Thanks to the new bridge design that minimized impacts to mussels and the planned conservation efforts, the impacts to freshwater mussels resulting from this project are expected to be temporary and will be offset by the augmentation/reestablishment of mussel populations at the relocation sites throughout their historic ranges. The extensive and collaborative mussel salvage and relocation efforts aim to restore Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell mussel populations to levels that no longer require Endangered Species Act protections.

Few environmental firms in the country retain EnviroScience’s degree of scientific know-how, talent, and capability under one roof. The diverse backgrounds of our biologists, environmental engineers, scientists, and divers enable us to provide comprehensive in-house services and an integrated approach to solving environmental challenges—saving clients time, reducing costs, and ensuring high-quality results.

Our client guarantee is to provide “Excellence in Any Environment,” meaning no matter what we do, we will deliver on our Core Values of respect, client advocacy, quality work, accountability, teamwork, and safety. EnviroScience was created with the concept that we could solve complex problems by empowering great people. This concept still holds true today as our scientists explore the latest environmental legislation and regulations and incorporate the most up-to-date technology to gather and report data.

EnviroScience expertise includes but is not limited to aquatic surveys (including macroinvertebrate surveys and biological assessments); ecological restoration; ecological services (including impact assessments, invasive species control, and water quality monitoring); emergency response; engineering and compliance services; endangered mussel surveys; laboratory and analysis; stormwater management; sustainability services; threatened and endangered species; and wetlands and streams (including delineation and mitigation). Further, EnviroScience is one of the few biological firms in the country that is a general member of the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI) and offers full-service commercial diving services.