Water Resource Protection
ClearWater 's Water Resource Protection Program focuses on protecting, maintaining, and restoring the ecological integrity of watershed systems. Our goal is to retain the high quality of life in central Pennsylvania through watershed-based planning that balances environmental, social, and economic needs. We raise awareness of watershed issues and provide the tools and information needed to encourage sustainable decisions by community leaders and citizens.
Photo courtesy of Steve Williams.
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Vision 2020: Living With Interstate 99 Land Use and Sustainability Plan
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Spring Creek Watershed Management Plan and the Spring Creek Basin Conceptual Hydrologic Model
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Support of the Spring Creek Watershed Association and the Spring Creek Watershed Commission
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Spring Creek Watershed Surface and Ground Water Boundary Map and Teaching Guide
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Centre County, PA Senior Environment Corps (Centre County PaSEC) at ClearWater Conservancy
A
riparian area is the zone of transition between land and water. A healthy
riparian area is essential for the protection of water quality.
Riparian areas should be well-vegetated, mainly with woody plants to filter water entering a stream, stabilize banks, and shade stream bed.
Leaves and twigs from overhanging riparian vegetation fall into streams. As they move downstream, these materials add important food sources and vital in-stream structures for macro-invertebrates that support fish. The unique habitat of riparian areas provides important food sources and refuges for many wildlife species - amphibians, mammals, songbirds, among others, that are adapted to life in this moist environment.
When people live or farm close to streams, vegetation in riparian areas is commonly disturbed or removed. This disturbance quickly begins to unravel the delicate balance that once existed between soil, water, plants and animals. Stream banks quickly become destabilized, streams become silted and warm, invasive plant species begin to colonize, and riparian-dependent wildlife disappears.
The goal of ClearWater's Riparian Conservation Program is to improve stream quality in the Spring Creek watershed through the program’s four areas of focus: stream assessment, stewardship, restoration, and protection. The program educates streamside landowners on the role of vegetated buffers, restores streamside buffers in the watershed, and permanently protects riparian areas through conservation easements.
This project was based on an earlier effort to restore a degraded segment of Spring Creek at the highly visible Pennsylvania Military Museum site, to demonstrate to the community innovative stream restoration and natural stormwater management techniques. We won a 2003 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence for this effort.
ClearWater's
Riparian Conservation Program is funded by
PA Department of
Environmental Protection's Growing Greener Program, the
Chesapeake Bay Small
Watersheds Grant Program, Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program
and the National Fish
& Wildlife Foundation.
C
entre
County Natural Heritage Inventory
The Centre County Natural Heritage Inventory provides information to identify, map, and describe Centre County’s most significant natural places through investigation of plant and animal species and natural communities that are unique or uncommon in the county.
Spring Creek Rivers Conservation Plan
The Spring Creek Rivers Conservation Plan addresses issues of concern to the main stem of Spring Creek, its tributaries, and the watershed as a whole and develops recommendations for future conservation actions and partnerships. This 175 square mile watershed, which drains to the Susquehanna River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay, is beautiful. Silver threads of streams weave through fertile agricultural valleys. Vibrant communities are set against the backdrop of forested ridges. But as this sensitive headwaters area continues to urbanize, it faces many challenges.
The completion of the Spring Creek Rivers Conservation Plan enabled Spring Creek to be listed on DCNR's Pennsylvania Rivers Registry.
Vision 2020: Living with I-99 Land Use and Sustainability Plan
The Vision 2020: Living with I-99 project defined a community-based vision for the Mid-Bald Eagle Watershed for the year 2020 in light of the creation of Interstate 99 and developed a Land Use and Sustainability Plan to enable that vision to become a reality. ClearWater worked closely with the I-99 Partnership for Sustainable Development to reach consensus about this community vision.
ClearWater also facilitated six municipalities in the creation of a Vision 2020 I-99 Interchange Overlay Zone Model Ordinance to guide and manage growth at the I-99 interchanges in Centre County.
Spring Creek Watershed Management Plan and the Spring Creek Basin Conceptual Hydrologic Model
The Spring Creek Watershed is experiencing some of the most rapid growth and development in the Commonwealth. This trend has resulted in land use changes and increased water use, which will affect the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff, surface water, ground water, and aquatic resources within the basin. Spring Creek's Watershed Management Plan has drawn together the wealth of existing plans, studies, and data within the Spring Creek Watershed, taken a holistic view of the water resources, and distilled out the most compelling priorities for action. As part of this plan, ClearWater has been working in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey on the development of a computer model that will link surface and ground water with land use in the karst Spring Creek Watershed. The Spring Creek Basin Conceptual Hydrologic Model Report is a summary of basin hydrologic characteristics that is being used as the basis for simulating ground-water and surface water flow in the watershed.
Support of the Spring
Creek Watershed Association and the Spring Creek Watershed Commission
In 1996, ClearWater hosted an International Countryside Stewardship Exchange, which gave rise to the creation of both the Spring Creek Watershed Community (called the Spring Creek Watershed Association as of October 2009) and the Spring Creek Watershed Commission with the support of PA DEP and EPA.
The Spring Creek Watershed Association is a broad-based stakeholder initiative that was created as a result of the 1996 International Countryside Stewardship Exchange in the Spring Creek Watershed. The mission of the Spring Creek Watershed Association is to promote actions that protect and enhance the quality of life, environment, and the economy throughout the watershed while maintaining and improving the high quality of Spring Creek and its tributaries.
All citizens of the Spring Creek Watershed are considered "stakeholders" of the Spring Creek Watershed Association and are invited to attend any and all meetings of the Association, which are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:30 am at the Patton Township Building. Each meeting features an educational topic of interest within the watershed. The website for the Spring Creek Watershed Association is www.springcreekwatershed.org.
The Spring Creek Watershed Commission is a group of elected and appointed officials from thirteen of the fourteen watershed municipalities (Benner, College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris, Patton, Potter, Spring, and Walker Townships and Bellefonte, Centre Hall, Milesburg, and State College Boroughs. Boggs Township does not participate.) They currently meet once a month on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Spring Township Building at 7:30 pm to share issues of watershed concern.
Making
Choices: Water Resources and Our Community's Future
The Spring Creek Watershed Commission sponsored a series of public forums
entitled “Making Choices: Water Resources and Our Community’s Future” in the
fall of 2005 through the spring of 2006.
The forum goals were to inform the public of the interconnected water issues, to make them aware of the social, environmental and economic value of our water resources, and to encourage participation in the decisions necessary for the wise use of these resources.
October 5: Growth & Development and our Water Resources
January 19: Wastewater in the Spring Creek Watershed
February 28: Groundwater and Water Supply in the Spring Creek Watershed
April 11: Surface Waters of the Spring Creek Watershed: Status, Risks, Remedies
Co-sponsors included: Spring Creek Watershed Association, ClearWater Conservancy, Bellefonte Borough, Bellefonte Borough Authority, State College Borough Water Authority, Spring/Benner/Walker Joint Authority, Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County and Heritage 1, Builders Association of Central Pennsylvania, Centre County Conservation District, Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Centre County League of Women Voters, University Area Joint Authority, PA Senior Environmental Corps, and the Spring Creek Watershed Association’s Water Resources Monitoring Project.
Spring Creek
Watershed Boundary Signs
One of ClearWater's first projects to assist the Spring Creek Watershed
Association was the installation of
eleven “Entering Spring Creek Watershed” boundary signs to raise people’s
awareness of their watershed address.
Spring Creek
Watershed Surface and Ground Water Boundary Map and Teaching Guide
Water
Resources Monitoring Project (WRMP)
In order to fulfill the goal: Measure Watershed Quality and Set Goals for
Improvement, the Spring Creek
Watershed Association initiated the Water Resources Monitoring Project (WRMP)
in January 1998. The project was designed by the Water Resources Monitoring
Committee to establish baseline data to be used for the long-term protection
of
Spring Creek and its tributaries. In 1999, baseline data collection began with
base-flow monitoring and soon expanded to include ground-water and storm-water
monitoring.
There are several volunteer and internship opportunities available including:
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Collection of field data
· Data entry
· Database management
· Assistance with public forums
For more information about WRMP or if you would like to volunteer
for the
Water Resources Monitoring Project,
please contact Brianna at
237-0400.
Centre County, PA Senior Environment Corps (Centre County PaSEC) at ClearWater
Conservancy
On March 12, 2008, by a unanimous vote, members of
the six-year-old
Centre County PaSEC (Pennsylvania Senior Environmental Corps) expressed
their eagerness to join the ClearWater Conservancy as an associate group. The
next day the ClearWater Board voted to accept their proposal.
See the Centre County PaSEC website.
What is this PaSEC and why has it joined ClearWater?
In 1997 the U.S. EPA and Office of Aging assigned a Maryland non-profit the task of designing a national program to equip networks of retired volunteers as local water monitors. EASI (Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement) responded with uniform sets of testing equipment and the protocols for using them. EASI contracted with Pennsylvania to found the PA Senior Environmental Corps (PaSEC) office and website. Federal funds channeled through the state office to County Conservation and Aging Offices brought into existence self-governing chapters, with funding, training, and organizational assistance from the State DEP.
Some 17 chapters formed in Pennsylvania, each administered by the county Retired Senior Volunteer Program agency, and began recording baseline profiles of the streams in the county’s watersheds, using portable Hach monitoring kits supplied by EASI. Chapters reported their test findings on the EASI website.
The Centre County chapter started in April 2002 with a hands-on introduction to the Hach kit and basic protocols by experienced monitors from Clearfield County. The original 16 volunteers organized themselves with the guidance of Centre County Conservation District, and by June of that year had five teams in the field, sharing three kits.
Monthly meetings for training, site comparisons, and the pleasure of trading experiences with protocols new to all have gradually produced increasingly consistent results. Membership has grown to 52, in 13 teams, with a kit for each team. Stream sites now total 25 on 10 streams. With data records for some sites extending back six years, and cooperative programs with school districts under way, PaSEC’s original educational goals had been met before the DEP found itself compelled to close the state office.
What do the Teams do?
Each monitor team, on its particular day of the month, records as many as it can of 12 variables at its sites. Sites are strategically located on four of the five major watersheds in Centre County—6 on Bald Eagle Creek, 6 on Spring Creek, 4 on Penns Creek (including 2 on Sinking Creek), and 2 on Little Fishing Creek. (Results for Moshannon Creek, contaminated by acid mine drainage, did not change enough month to month to make monitoring worthwhile.)
Measurements include air and water temperature, pH, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, sulfates, total alkalinity, and average depth, width, and flow of the stream.
Twice a year, streams are rated by the number and type of their resident macro-invertebrate population. Snapshot inspections of the stream’s channel appearance and riparian conditions are performed periodically, usually once a year.
The detection of consistent seasonal and precipitation patterns in repetitive tests has given the teams confidence in the reliability of their measurements. Monthly Quality Control talks, and the comparison of test results with accredited lab results for the same specimens, are increasing uniformity and understanding of the results, team to team.
Centre County PaSEC at ClearWater Conservancy brings to the Conservancy a large group of trained and equipped volunteers, organized by county and familiar, through testing, with parts of four watersheds in the county. The group looks forward to coordinating with, under ClearWater’s umbrella, and participating in water monitoring programs both inside the organization and across the state.
Get Involved!
If you are a senior interested in a hands-on, outdoor volunteer experience with the Centre County PaSEC at ClearWater Conservancy, please contact Steve Lupis.
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