PA Environment Digest Blog: DEP Awards $3.4 Million To Support 12 Local Projects To Improve Water Quality, Fish & Wildlife Habitat In 8 Counties

On October 16, the Department of Environmental Protection announced it has awarded more than $3.4 million in grants to 12 projects in 8 counties to improve water quality and fish and wildlife habitat throughout Pennsylvania’s part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and other watersheds.

The 12 awards are funded by the Section 319 Grant program from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and selected by DEP.

The purpose of the grants is to support projects that carry out best management practices (BMPs) specified in Watershed Implementation Plans for 43 watersheds around the state.

The program also supports development of new Watershed Implementation Plans for impaired watersheds in Environmental Justice (EJ) areas.

Ten of the 12 grants are for projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Ensuring clean water and healthy watersheds is a fundamental right for all Pennsylvanians. With these grant awards we will continue our work to reduce pollution and improve water quality in Pennsylvania,” said DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “These projects are creating healthier streams and wetlands across Pennsylvania, reducing flood risk and improving fish and wildlife habitat. We are building on the success we are seeing in the Chesapeake Bay watershed by restoring streambanks, removing legacy sediment, and treating mine water discharge, among other improvements.”

"Nearly 40 years ago, our elected leaders understood the importance of addressing things like runoff from farms and urban areas, but what they couldn’t have know back then is exactly how important these grants would become,” said Adam Ortiz, EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator. “Because of the strategic and intentional efforts to address this type of pollution, Pennsylvania is improving not only it’s local water quality, but also that of downstream waters like the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds.”

Ortiz announced Pennsylvania will receive an additional $4.8 million in the next round of Section 319 grants to support local water quality improvement projects.

Grants were awarded to projects in the following counties:

Bucks

-- Middletown and Newtown Townships - Core Creek and Lake Luxembourg, Bucks County Conservation District: $224,830 for an updated Watershed Implementation Plan employing new data for modeling; a lake management plan and conceptual green stormwater infrastructure design for the in-line Silver Lake municipal park; and engineered and conceptual designs for repair of a storm-damaged pocket wetland to lake tributary.

Erie

-- Waterford Township – Trout Run Advance Restoration Plan, Western PA Conservancy: $169,381 for targeted landowner outreach to implement erosion and sediment controls on farmlands, plant 10 acres of forested riparian buffers, and stabilize 1,000 linear feet of stream

Huntingdon

-- Carbon Township – Miller Run Abandoned Mine Discharge Limestone Replacement Project, Huntingdon County Conservation District: $80,000 to reduce loading of acidity, iron, manganese, and aluminum into the Shoup’s Run watershed and maintain the functioning capacity of two AMD passive treatment systems by placing new limestone in two 16 year-old systems.

Lancaster

-- Fulton Township - Supplee Farm Stream Restoration, Lancaster County Conservation District: $390,625 to implement a stream restoration project in the Conowingo Creek. The project will restore 3,500 linear feet of the stream through in-stream aquatic habitat and bank stabilization structures.

Lebanon

-- West Cornwall Township – Beck Creek 6 Project, Doc Fritchey Trout Unlimited: $761,021 to restore 2,000 linear feet of Beck Creek. The restoration design objectives include creating a stable stream channel that meanders across the center of a restored floodplain. The restoration of the floodplain will create 5.15 acres of high value emergent, scrub-shrub and forested wetlands and 10.2 acres of riparian buffer that provide water quality and habitat functions.

Schuylkill

-- Tremont Borough - Middle Creek Watershed-Wide Restoration Prototype Projects Design, Schuylkill Conservation District: $273,000 develop prototype stream restoration designs with watershed-wide permit along with the development of one Middle Creek Strategic Watershed Restoration Plan, which will help stream restoration projects to alleviate frequent flooding in the Middle Creek watershed.

-- Foster Township - Buck Mountain Abandoned Mine Discharge Treatment System Design, Schuylkill Conservation District: $214,000 for design of an AMD treatment system to remove iron and acidity from the Upper Swatara Creek watershed.

Snyder

-- Perry Township - Investing in Riparian Buffers to Support Clean Water, Chesapeake Bay Foundation: $500,000 to design and implement 100 new forested riparian buffer acres and maintain existing buffers on agricultural lands prioritizing projects in Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Franklin, Adams, Bedford, Centre, Clinton, Lebanon, Lycoming, Mifflin and Juniata counties.

-- Freeburg Borough – Hoffman Streambank Restoration and Habitat Project, Snyder County Conservation District: $56,968 to construction of stream stabilization/fish habitat structures to remediate significant streambank erosion along 1,340 ft. Susquehecka Creek.

York

-- North Codorus Township - Unnamed Tributary to South Branch Codorus Creek Restoration, Watershed Alliance of York: $333,300 to restore approximately 2,000 linear feet of stream, relocate 500 feet of stream through natural channel design, create half and acre of floodplain, and plant 1.5 acres of riparian buffer. The restoration project will stabilize severely-eroded stream banks, remove of legacy sediment, establish floodplain benches, use instream aquatic habitat and flow control structures and establish a native tree and shrub forested riparian buffer.

-- Shrewsbury Township - Centerville Creek Stream Restoration, Watershed Alliance of York: $245,940 to restore approximately 800 linear feet of stream and install 2.7 acres of forest buffer.

-- Spring Garden Township - Unnamed Tributary to Codorus Creek Stream Restoration, York County Conservation District: $184,579 to design and permit the restoration of approximately 3,135 ft. of stream and approximately 304,099 sq. ft. of riparian buffer planting, remove legacy sediment, and convert the restored floodplain into a riparian buffer that is comprised of wetland vegetation.

Pennsylvania has made progress in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Earlier this year, the Shapiro Administration announced that for the first time in the history, the Chesapeake Bay showed steady overall improvement, earning a C+ grade from the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and Watershed Report Card – the highest grade ever awarded to the overall health of the Bay since the report was created.

The Upper Bay, which is fed by the Susquehanna River from Pennsylvania scored one of the highest grades among any area of the Bay – and posted a significant improvement from last year – showing how efforts in agency collaborations, strong partnerships, and sustained investments led to progress throughout the Susquehanna River watershed and beyond.

Visit DEP’s Section 319 Nonpoint Source webpage for more information on this program.

Click Here for DEP’s announcement. Click Here for video from the announcement.

Visit DEP’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed webpage to learn more about cleaning up rivers and streams in Pennsylvania's portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Click Here to sign up for regular updates on Pennsylvania’s progress.

For more information on environmental programs in Pennsylvania, visit DEP’s website, Report Emergencies, Submit Environmental Complaints; Click Here to sign up for DEP’s newsletter; sign up for DEP’s eNotice; visit DEP’s Blog, Like DEP on Facebook, Follow DEP on Twitter and visit DEP’s YouTube Channel.

How Clean Is Your Stream?

The draft 2024 report has an interactive report viewer that allows you to zoom in to your own address to see if the streams near you are impaired and why.

Click Here to check out your streams. Click Here for a tutorial on using the viewer.

NewsClips:

-- Erie News Now: Western PA Conservancy Awarded $169,000 Grant To Improve Trout Run Watershed In Erie County [Section 319]

-- $500,000 Grant To Chesapeake Bay Foundation To Add 100 Acres Of New Forested Stream Buffers In 12 Counties