Coming soon: Weigh in on your municipality’s MS4 permit

Since PennFuture and the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reached a settlement to improve Pennsylvania’s program for preventing stormwater runoff from polluting our streams and rivers, there have been many new and enhanced opportunities for public engagement in the municipal stormwater permitting process. 

This summer, DEP sought comments from the public about the draft general permit for discharges into municipal separate stormwater systems, known as PAG-13.

Yet another opportunity is on the horizon for Pennsylvanians to engage in the municipal stormwater permitting process. Some MS4 municipalities in the commonwealth will be submitting Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Strategies to DEP. Citizens can request a copy of DEP’s review letter for their municipality’s TMDL Strategy from the department. 

Do you live in a MS4 community? 

For those of us who aren’t engineers or environmental planners, PennFuture, Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust are offering assistance to clarify and simplify the stormwater permit process for watershed and conservation groups as well as for citizens who wish to participate in borough or township planning processes.

Our presentation will cover:

• What the settlement in the MS4 case means for you
• Opportunities to get involved in your municipality's stormwater planning process, including:
• When and how you can participate  — and why it's a key opportunity for citizens to give public input
• What to look for in permit applications, including pollutant reduction plans and TMDL plans   

MS4 Public Participation Presentation

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, PennFuture, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust invite you to to learn about how you can work with your community to improve water quality.

Monday, November 16

4:30 – 7:00pm

Jenkintown Library

460 Old York Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046

Questions & RSVP to Jon Musselman | jon@ttfwatershed.org | 215.744.1853

Katie Bartolotta is southeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Philadelphia. She tweets @KatieBartolotta.

New report shows PA failing to reduce water pollution

I’ve written many times on this blog about pollution fouling our local waters and ultimately making its way to the Chesapeake Bay, and I’ve also written about the plan to clean up the Bay and its watershed by 2025. In this plan, the Bay states have committed to incremental goals, or milestones, that help track each state's progress in reducing water pollution from agriculture, stormwater, and wastewater.

Earlier this week, the Choose Clean Water Coalition (CCWC), of which we are state lead organization for Pennsylvania, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation released their joint Milestones Report which details whether or not the Bay states are on track to meet their water pollution reduction goals.

There are reports for each of the Bay states and Washington, D.C. but I’ll focus on Pennsylvania. After a quick look at the report, it’s clear that Pennsylvania is way off track when it comes to reducing pollution from the agriculture and stormwater sectors. This is troubling because these two sectors contribute the largest amounts of pollution to our waters and the Bay. The one sector where Pennsylvania has met its goals is the wastewater sector.

However, there is still time for Pennsylvania to get back on track. To better manage stormwater, our Department of Environmental Protection should promote the formation of regional stormwater authorities to local governments. To reduce pollution from agriculture, increased outreach and technical and financial assistance to farmers can ensure increased adoption of conservation practices that will keep soils and nutrients in place and out of our waters.

The plan to clean up the Bay will only work if all sources of pollution do their fair share. Along with accountability measures, the plan contains consequences such as requiring further costly reductions from wastewater treatment plants if we cannot get the necessary pollution reductions from agriculture or stormwater.

Jen Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1.

More opportunities for the public to weigh in on stormwater pollution

In November 2014, PennFuture won a key victory for how Pennsylvania manages the issue of polluted stormwater entering our waterways. Between now and July 29, the public can provide input to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) about the draft general permit for discharges into municipal separate stormwater systems, known as PAG-13. Many of the proposed changes to PAG-13 were the direct result of our settlement in the 2014 case.

Both the state and federal governments have made a priority to address polluted runoff from rain and snow into our storm sewers. This runoff carries street debris, oil, fertilizer, chemicals and trash with it, all untreated as it enters rivers such as the Schuylkill, Delaware, Susquehanna, and thousands of streams and rivers across Pennsylvania. This issue is part of the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) state program, and the public comment period on the new program allows you -- the public, both as individuals or watershed and conservation organizations -- to provide helpful information to DEP. 

A draft of the revised PAG-13 is available from DEP’s website: http://www.elibrary.dep.state.pa.us/dsweb/View/Collection-12476
and the Pennsylvania Bulletin pages 2674-2675 has full instructions for submitting comments. DEP also offers this background on municipal stormwater issues and more on the comment process. Finally, our recent blog post on the topic explains the details of the settlement and what it means for water quality.

Kate Gibbons is northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Dedicated to protecting a unique place on earth

It's been named one of the last great places worldwide by the Nature Conservancy and, last week, nearly 100 citizens came out to support protections for the unique Pocono Plateau of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Community groups and residents attended the April 23 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) public hearing in Thornhurst Twp. to provide input on how to protect pristine waterways, wetlands, and habitats impacted by a planned electric transmission line. The hearing addressed the proposed PPL West Pocono-North Pocono 230kV line in Buck Township, Luzerne County and Thornhurst, Clifton and Covington townships, Lackawanna County as detailed in March 2015 in this blog space.

The proposed right-of-way for this project is twenty miles long and covers an area of approximately 296 acres in an area with at least thirty-four (34) perennial or intermittent streams and thirty-three (33) wetlands, the latter covering more than twenty-four (24) acres. A theme echoed by many of the sixteen speakers was the at-risk special features of these Exceptional Value (EV) streams and wetlands, and the importance of their habitat for native wildlife like otters, wild trout, deer, foxes, and an entire interdependent ecosystem enjoyed by countless Pennsylvanians. Among the potential negative impacts are loss of nesting and spawning sites, introduction of invasive species, toxic herbicide use, and water pollution during construction as well as in the permanent right-of-way clearing.

Area township elected officials, land trusts, conservation and angler organizations, and community residents were among presenters who provided thoughtful testimony asking DEP for specific improvements to conditions set in three environmental permit applications. North Pocono CARE's president and members, along with PennFuture staff attorney Mike Helbing, also testified. PennFuture and many speakers strongly urged DEP to set permit conditions that would give the highest level of protection to the region -- and limit the damage for humans and habitat in this special place.

If you have input on the environmental impact of the plans, please add your voice: DEP will accept written comments up until Thursday, May 7, 2015. Comments should be limited to the West Pocono-North Pocono 230 kV Transmission Line Permits #E40-761, E35-456 and PAI023514002. Please visit our page on this topic for the full permit applications.

Comments can be sent to: coconnolly@pa.gov or: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Wetlands and Waterways Program, 2 Public Square Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701-1915 attn.: Colleen Connolly re: West Pocono-North Pocono 230 kV Transmission Line Permits #E40-761, E35-456 and PAI023514002

Kate Gibbons is northeast Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Get involved! Stormwater management in your community.

PennFuture and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council have developed an informative and educational program designed to help you (yes, you) become more involved in local stormwater management.

Stormwater, a.k.a. melting snow and rain that flows across parking lots, streets, and lawns, can pick up harmful pollutants like motor oil, lawn fertilizer, pet waste, and trash and carry them into storm drains and, ultimately, our rivers and streams. Stormwater can also erode stream banks and can lead to flooding. Simply put, poorly managed stormwater is an issue that affects all of us. That’s why we’re excited to offer this program.

PennFuture recently reached a legal settlement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that will change the way municipal separate storm sewer systems, known as MS4s, receive permits in Pennsylvania. Our goal is to offer assistance in clarifying and simplifying the stormwater permit process for watershed and conservation groups as well as citizens – and make public participation in your borough or township's planning process easier.

The program will cover:

•        What the DEP legal settlement means for you

•        Ways you or your organization and its members can get involved in the DEP's process for updating the general permit for MS4s.

•        Opportunities to get involved in your local municipality's stormwater planning process, including:

◦          When and how you can participate in the public input process — and why it's a key opportunity for citizens

◦          What to look for in permit applications, including pollutant reduction plans and TMDL plans

Where:  The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania

                100 E. Northwestern Avenue

                Philadelphia, PA 19118 
               (in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia)

When: Monday, February 23, 2015 at 7 p.m.

To reserve a seat, you can either call Joy Bergey at 215-313-1311 or register online at

http://pennfuture-pec-workshop.eventbrite.com

For more information, please contact Joy Bergey, bergey@pennfuture.org, 215-313-1311.

If February 23 isn't convenient for you (either the date or the location) but you'd like to find out about other upcoming trainings, contact Joy (bergey@pennfuture.org, 215-313-1311).

Jennifer Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1.

Two minutes for a better city

Anyone living, working, or visiting Harrisburg knows we have a big problem with trash. Trash cans are often overflowing and many folks think nothing of tossing their cigarette butts and food wrappers on the ground. Not only is this unsightly and gross, it also pollutes our water. When it rains, everything on the ground, from animal waste to motor oil to discarded plastic bags, gets washed into our storm sewers, or even directly into streams and rivers. Once in the storm sewer, the polluted runoff and trash is discharged into our waterways. Trash in our lakes and rivers often leads to mortality in fish and birds when they ingest or become entangled in it, and can increase bacteria levels in waterways, posing a threat to human health.

In order to address Harrisburg’s trash problem, 2Minute Tuesday was started in 2011. It’s a unique initiative and a call to action that encourages City of Harrisburg residents and businesses to take two minutes every Tuesday to pick up litter, sweep the sidewalk, and clean up the front of their homes and businesses. It’s a simple idea that can make Harrisburg a better place to live and work, and it’ll keep the trash out of our creeks and rivers.

We’ve started doing our part every Tuesday. Won’t you join us?

Jennifer Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1 (and tidies up in front of PennFuture's Harrisburg office on Tuesdays!).

Touring Crabby Creek with Congressman Jim Gerlach

This guest blog was written by Katy Dunlap.  Katy is the Eastern Water Project Director for Trout Unlimited and works primarily in Pennsylvania and New York.

Today, Valley Forge TU Chapter members took Congressman Jim Gerlach (6th District, Pennsylvania) to visit two sites on Crabby Creek—a tributary to Valley Creek—where the chapter has worked with countless partners over the past five years to restore the stream channel for trout habitat and address stormwater runoff downstream. 

Just northwest of Philadelphia, the Crabby Creek watershed is a major tributary to the 23-square mile Valley Creek watershed which is designated as an Exceptional Value and Class A Wild Trout watershed, the two highest water quality and biological designations that a stream can receive in Pennsylvania. Yet, despite its high quality, the Valley Creek watershed has been plagued with excess stormwater runoff and sedimentation, flooding, stream bank erosion, and channel scour, affecting the hydrology of the stream as well as its naturally reproducing population of wild trout. Crabby Creek has been one of the main stormwater-contributing culprits and more work is needed to restore the watershed.

The Crabby Creek project, like hundreds of other projects currently underway or being planned in the Delaware River watershed, could benefit greatly from passage of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act (DRBCA). The DRBCA, co-sponsored by Congressman Gerlach, would create a voluntary, non-regulatory program in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate conservation and restoration activities in the Delaware River watershed and provide for a competitive grant program to help fund on-the-ground projects like the Crabby Creek project. We thank Congressman Gerlach for recognizing the importance of the Delaware River watershed and urge Congress to support the DRBCA and related restoration efforts.

Mount Olympus of water pollution?

While we're riveted to the screen for Olympic skiing, snowboarding, and ice dancing, the back story of the Winter Games in Sochi haunts like a missed gate on the slalom course. On February 12 in Krasnodar, Russia, environmental activist Evgeny Vitishko was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of spray-painting a fence. Vitishko is part of Environmental Watch on North Caucasus, which has been monitoring the environmental impact of the development of Olympics facilities and infrastructure.

Significant devastation has accompanied Sochi's rapid development and has been widely reported in news outlets around the world. It's destroyed well water for a village, buried a migratory bird wetland, and polluted the Mzymta River -- the largest river supplying the Black Sea and its complex ecosystem.

Activists who've drawn attention to the devastation face intimidation and arrests in a region without an independent judiciary and where freedom of the press is ranked as nonexistent. Refugee families from the Krasnodar region who fled persecution and settled in Pennsylvania cities such as Lancaster and Scranton a decade ago likely can relate. While the Games have brought international attention to human rights and environmental violations, the problems will persist well after the Sochi torch is doused.

Here in Pennsylvania, we are no strangers to water pollution, with 16,000 miles of impaired streams, and mine drainage, stormwater and agricultural runoff affecting our water all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. But the Games' avoidable ecological cost should give us pause, as activists are jailed even while world attention is on the region. After the Games end, environmental and human rights groups are going to need lots of help to keep the spotlight on this and how to begin to recover.

Kate Gibbons is northeast Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture, based in Wilkes-Barre.

Rain rain go away: It's not that simple with stormwater runoff

The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers 64,000 square miles, including parts of six states, and is home to more than 17 million people. The Bay's land to water ratio (14:1) is the largest of any coastal water body in the world and is why our actions on the land have such big impacts on the Bay's health.

Over the past 30 years, cooperation between governments, businesses, and individuals has reduced many types of pollution in the Bay and its tributaries.  However, one major type of water pollution continues to grow: untreated stormwater runoff from roads, roofs, and other impermeable surfaces. This growth is a result of development spreading throughout the region.

Every four years, an area about the size of Washington, D.C. (nearly 40,000 acres) is converted from field and forest to impermeable roads, parking lots, and buildings. And just one inch of rain falling on one acre of paved surface results in 27,000 gallons of runoff.

When runoff from storms sweeps across paved surfaces, it collects a mix of pollutants including trash, oil, nitrogen, phosphorous, herbicides, bacteria from pet waste, and even toxic metals such as zinc, lead, and cadmium.  Pesticides have been found in 97 percent of runoff samples and at levels high enough to harm aquatic life 83 percent of the time. Flooding damage from uncontrolled runoff including flooded basements, sinkholes, and eroded roads and buildings causes $150 million per year in damages in the Susquehanna River drainage.

Fortunately, local governments can control runoff pollution with relatively simple, cost-effective practices. They include planting trees to replace natural filters removed during development and installing retention ponds to catch and filter runoff as well as roadside ditches (swales) with plants to absorb pollutants and barrels to collect rain from roofs. Developers can construct buildings with green roofs and parking lots of porous pavement. And communities can create more green spaces to allow soils to absorb rainfall.

Practices like these not only manage stormwater, they increase property values and recreational opportunities and also provide wildlife habitat and improved aesthetics. Ultimately, stormwater management can make our communities better places to live.

Jen Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture, based in Harrisburg. She specializes in water quality issues.

Autumn onslaught

This beautiful, warm October and its kaleidoscope of fallen leaves brings to mind an aspect of stormwater pollution. Yet it might not be one we think about until we end up driving on a flooded street due to sodden oak, maple and willow leaves clogging storm drains and increasing the load on our waterways.

Google "Pennsylvania leaf collection" and you'll find, as I did, the myriad ways our statewide municipalities address (or don't address) fall leaves. We're the sixth most populous state in the nation and we have roughly 17 million acres of forest cover, some seen here in a fall view of Frances Slocum State Park in Luzerne County. Yes, our fall foliage can easily become an autumn onslaught.

Recycling leaves and grass into mulch on your lawn as well as encouraging community pickup and large-scale mulching are a couple of options, along with these tips for managing fall leaves. The Lancaster County, Pa. Conservation District has also produced this guide to managing stormwater on your property. Finally, the poetry of autumn is a good accompaniment to any yard work on a fall afternoon.

Can’t stop the rain (but can reduce the pollution)

We are all acutely aware of the damage caused by flooding after major storms such as Superstorm Sandy. Most of us, however, do not think about the effects ordinary rain events – even gentle showers – can have on our streams and rivers. Although our mental images of rain may include fond memories of running through a warm summer shower as a child, splashing through puddles and trying to catch drops on our tongues, the ultimate effect of that rainwater may actually be harmful to our streams and rivers.

As rain or melted snow makes its way through our gutters, down our streets and sidewalks, and over our fertilized fields, it picks up dirt, motor oil, pet droppings, fertilizer, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and anything else that might be in its path. Many of our municipal storm sewer systems do not treat stormwater, so all the pollution the rainwater has collected runs into the streams and rivers in which we fish, boat, and swim, and from which we obtain much of our drinking water. In fact, according to estimates, 3,000 miles of Pennsylvania streams are polluted by stormwater runoff alone.

We all know that we can’t stop the rain, so what can we do to help protect our water? First, there are many small things that we can do in our everyday lives. These include properly disposing of products including motor oil or pesticides that contain harmful chemicals; using lawn fertilizers sparingly and only when necessary; and cleaning up after our pets.

On a larger scale, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of drafting standards that would modernize its approach to stormwater. These standards should encourage "green design," which seeks to maximize the amount of stormwater controlled on the site where the rain falls, keeping it – and the pollutants it carries – out of the storm sewer system, and thus out of our waterways. Unfortunately, EPA’s draft rules are long overdue.

A campaign launched in August encourages citizens to ask their representatives in Congress to pressure EPA to publish these overdue rules. There is still time for you to lend your voice to that campaign. The organization American Rivers has developed tools that will make it easy for you to contact your representatives in Congress. Go to http://www.americanrivers.org/blog/tell-epa-not-delay-protect-clean-water/, and make your voice heard!

Water, water everywhere -- and, now, here

As our work on water issues around the state, including our effort as state lead for the Choose Clean Water Coalition, continues to grow, we've decided to jump into the blogosphere with this newest PennFuture blog. As the name says, it all flows downstream -- and what comes around does indeed go around in the cycle of water.

Earlier this summer, we worked on a key bill enacted into law in Pennsylvania which will make it easier for local governments to manage stormwater. Stormwater problems cause flooding and road, bridge, and sewer damage, and are an enormous source of pollution to our rivers and streams and, ultimately, to the grand Chesapeake Bay, which is the nation's largest estuary.

In California right now, the Rim Fire (187,000 acres as of today) has been causing great concern for the threat it could pose to San Francisco's drinking water. Climate change is only going to increase these dangers. Conversely, citizens across the Commonwealth are concerned about the impacts from shale gas on Pennsylvania's water for drinking as well as recreation throughout Penn's Woods. That's one reason we've been working as part of a statewide coalition keen to prevent possible drilling in the Loyalsock State Forest. Last week, 12,000 signatures were presented to Gov. Corbett's staff on this issue and you can still add your voice to protect our forests and waters. (Speaking of which, The Department of Forests and Waters was the former and expressive name of the Pennsylvania state agency created in 1923 by Governor Pinchot. Today, it's part of the larger Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.)

There's a lot happening here in our state known for our forests and its waters. Our aim is to bring you the latest and the little-known challenges and good things happening from the grassroots up.