PA’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed Planning Committee Takes Initial Actions On Developing Pollution Reduction Plan

The Steering Committee for Phase 3 of PA’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed Plan Thursday approved a recommendation to develop nutrient and sediment reduction goals by county to help target efforts to meet Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup commitments.

While not intended to be hard and fast reduction targets, the effort will be designed to help prioritize areas for nitrogen, sediment and phosphorus reductions initiatives.

This approach was based on a presentation to the Committee by Lisa Schaefer, County Commissioners Association of PA and Matt Johnston, University of Maryland, Chesapeake Bay Program Office who provided examples of how the data available can now help target the cleanup effort.  Click Here for available presentation slides.

The presentation used nitrogen reductions as an example and demonstrated how the information on the controllable reductions can be presented by county, large-scale and smaller-scale watersheds and other parameters.

This way of showing the data divided counties into four tiers, the first would get 25 percent of the needed reductions, the second tier the next 25 percent, etc.  Here’s how it broke down showing the counties where the most significant reduction can be made, assuming each of the sectors involved-- agriculture, stormwater, wastewater-- would contribute an equal percentage to the reduction--

-- Tier I First 25 Percent Reductions: Lancaster, York counties

-- Tier II Second 25 Percent: Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lackawanna, Lebanon

-- Tier III Third 25 Percent: Adams, Bedford, Centre, Columbia, Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder

-- Tier IV Fourth 25 Percent: Berks, Blair, Bradford, Cambria, Cameron, Carbon, Chester, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Fulton, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Luzerne, McKean, Montour, Potter, Schuylkill, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, Wyoming,

(Photo: Shows Tiers.)

Johnston told the group these tiers will be about the same using information for needed sediment and phosphorus reductions.
The presentation also demonstrated how this same kind of analysis can help target efforts to reduce nutrients and sediment within counties as well.

The next meeting of the Steering Committee is not scheduled now until February 15, however, Committee members were discussing added meetings in December and January to the schedule.

For more information, visit the Phase 3 Steering Committee Actions webpage.