Awareness of the
importance of clean water to streams and rivers, and their connection to the
larger Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, is growing in York County, Pennsylvania.
Momentum is gaining
interest and support not with just a few individuals, but collectively as a
county.
Presented with an
challenge—the Chesapeake Bay TMDL—York County’s Conservation District and
Planning Commission took on the roles of educator, facilitator, and change
agent.
The Planning Commission
took the lead forming a County-wide TMDL Work Group to develop a countywide
pollution reduction strategy to help Pennsylvania meet it’s Bay Agreement
goals. Known as a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), the plan identifies the
most cost effective nutrient and sediment pollution reduction practices to
achieve clean water goals and restore streams.
The next step to
getting the job done is where the rubber hits the road—implementation.
One very important
pollution source that is continuing to increase, even with reductions from
wastewater treatment and agricultural pollution sources, is polluted urban and
suburban stormwater runoff.
For township managers,
it can be difficult to maintain and update the infrastructure needed to
transport polluted runoff—things like storm drains, pipes, ditches, and
retention ponds.
York County has
developed a collaborative plan to reduce pollution, restore streams, and save
everyone money. The plan calls for the implementation of actions in four key
areas:
· --- Capture
unreported projects from local, state and federal cost share programs;
·
--- Existing program
administration (e.g., agricultural conservation planning, land use planning,
stormwater management, etc.);
·
--- New nonstructural
Best Management Practices applied on the ground to capture and treat urban,
suburban and rural stormwater runoff and stream restoration; and
·
---- BMPs not in
current Bay Model (i.e., The York Water Company’s Sediment Filtration Plan).
A stakeholders group
“Coalition for Clean Waters” has been formed—consisting of local business,
government, nonprofit groups, and other individuals—to help educate the public
about York County’s WIP and encourage implementation of the recommended Best
Management Practices by landowners and local officials.
The Chesapeake Bay
Foundation is lending a hand to York County and its 72 local municipalities
through both private funding and through a generous grant from the William Penn
Foundation, by providing technical assistance for locally lead water quality improvement
efforts. The CBF will be hosting a series of workshops designed to assist local
officials. The workshops will begin in January 2014.
For more information
about local workshops or to see what else is happening in York County, visit www.cbf.org/Pennsylvania and www.ycpc.org.
