Reboot state efforts, restore the Chesapeake Bay

In the wake of the Flint crisis, all eyes are on water quality, including here in Pennsylvania. Nearly half the state of Pennsylvania is within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and people are starting to realize the state’s shortcomings on Bay restoration efforts. 

"Polluted runoff from urban and agricultural areas, along with wastewater, degrades water quality here and downstream," said Jacqui Bonomo, vice president and COO of PennFuture. "The state has a key role to play in the health of the Chesapeake Bay." 

Faced with mounting pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental groups, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced an interdepartmental strategy to “reboot” the state’s efforts towards restoring our local waters and, ultimately, Chesapeake Bay water quality. 

The plan, jointly developed by DEP and the departments of Agriculture and Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), outlines six areas of improvement:

1.  Address pollutant reduction by: (a) meeting the EPA goal of inspecting 10 percent of farms and municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) in the watershed annually, (b) ensuring that farmers develop and follow manure management and erosion and sediment control plans, and (c) enforcement for non-compliance

2.  Quantify undocumented Best Management Practices (BMPs) in watersheds impaired by agriculture or stormwater and put more high-impact, low-cost BMPs on the ground

3.  Improve reporting, record-keeping, and data systems to provide better documentation and obtain maximum credit toward Bay pollution reduction goals

4.  Identify legislative, programmatic, and regulatory changes to provide additional tools and resources necessary to meet federal pollution reduction goals by 2025

5.  Establish a DEP Chesapeake Bay Office to coordinate development and implementation, of Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay efforts

6.  Obtain additional resources for water quality improvement

Jim Hershey of Hershey Farms shows Sec. Redding the engineering in farm equipment that will help meet Federal Clean water standards and help to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Photo via: Commonwealth of PA 

Although the pollution reduction targets set for Pennsylvania by the EPA (mentioned on this post) will not be met by the interim milestone of 2017, the state is working hard to meet the final goals for 2025. 

To get there, the DEP hopes the reboot will intensify regulatory presence, increase funding for inspections and staff, and improve the documentation of pollution reduction within the state. Additionally, it seeks to create a culture of compliance among all the land-users within the watershed. 

As John Quigley, Secretary of the DEP, said in the webinar announcing the reboot: “It’s clear that the DEP cannot do this work alone and be successful.”

Sam Boden is a Messiah College student interning at PennFuture in Harrisburg. He is passionate about sustainable and effective environmental policy at the state and federal level.

An ancient fish makes an appearance

Those in the Philadelphia area -- okay, at least conservationists and anglers -- were abuzz with the news that a fisherman snagged a shortnose sturgeon this past summer near the Fairmount Dam. The fish has been on the federal endangered species list since 1967 and has not been identified in the Schuylkill River before, either by water testing agencies or known in the historical record.

The sturgeon is one of those near-mythical creatures that grabs our imagination and attention. It has remained mostly unchanged for tens of millions of years, making it commonly referred to as a "living fossil." Among 25 sturgeon species worldwide, some can reach 18 feet in size, live anywhere from 30 to 100 years, and some can even reach 4,000 lbs. in weight. As well, several species from Russia and Asia are a source of caviar.

However, the 25 sturgeon species are almost all classified as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered because of commercial overfishing (including demand for caviar and subsequent illegal fishing), damming of native river habitats, and the species' high sensitivity to water pollution and environmental threats.

Sturgeon have a presence in various Northeast rivers including the Delaware and in the Atlantic Ocean, but, to date, not in the Schuylkill. So the creature's appearance in Philly is welcome news for water quality, all thanks to a still-unknown angler who snapped a photo holding his find.

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

Zombie bill intent on dirtying your water

With fall approaching and Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d share a frightening tale with you. Here at PennFuture, we have been dealing with a “zombie bill” for over a year and just like real zombies, this bill rises up again and again from the (almost) dead. It may well take an outpouring of citizens to finally kill the bill as the clock moves toward midnight at the end of the legislative session.

What ghoulish bill do I speak of? House Bill 1565 (insert blood-curdling scream)! This proposed legislation would remove riparian forest buffer requirements for our best waters -- those designated as exceptional value (EV) or high quality (HQ). These requirements, established just a few years ago, acknowledge the importance of forested buffers to our water quality, wildlife, and communities. Now, there are some in Harrisburg who want to remove these protections because they believe we can either get by without them or engineer controls, such as rain gardens and wet detention ponds, to do the same things forested buffers do, but that’s just not true.

The unique benefits of maintaining or installing forested buffers are many, including:

           ·          filtering pollution from agriculture and other land uses, improving water quality

           ·          natural flood control for downstream communities

           ·          preventing erosion and stabilizing the stream bank. This helps to maintain the natural width, depth, and sediments of a stream

           ·          improving stream health, which increases the level of in-stream processing of pollutants

           ·          providing habit and food for aquatic life, and shade which keeps temperatures stable

           ·          increased opportunities for fishing, kayaking, and hiking

           ·          increased property values by preserving scenic beauty and natural character

It’s clear that forested buffers provide more than just water retention and sediment removal. How could we engineer shade, aquatic food and habitat, or scenic beauty? A better question might be, why pay to engineer and maintain systems when forest buffers do everything they do, and more, for free?

Additionally, under the Chesapeake Bay pollution limits, Pennsylvania committed to establish forest buffers to reduce pollution from its part of the watershed, but we have fallen behind in meeting our commitments. To achieve our 2017 goal, we need to establish roughly 50 acres of riparian forest buffers every day through 2017. In the recent Chesapeake Bay Agreement, Pennsylvania, along with the other Bay states, has also agreed to conserve existing forest buffers until at least 70 percent of riparian areas throughout the Bay watershed are forested. Given our commitments, we should be doing everything we can to preserve existing buffers and establish new ones, but HB 1565 will do just the opposite (insert second blood-curdling scream).

Sharpen your wooden stake…no wait, that’s for vampires. Get your silver bullet…sorry, wrong again. That’s for werewolves. Stay tuned to find out how you can help put an end, once and for all, to this zombie bill.

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

A view from a greener golf course

After this long, difficult winter, another harbinger of spring are those die-hard golfers who return to the golf course. We’ve all seen golf courses on TV, but have you ever wondered how such landscapes are created?  Do you believe that course care can be done in a more environmentally-friendly way?

The answer is, yes, it can. I was lucky enough to tour such a course a few weeks ago. This “greener” golf course is one of a handful in south central Pennsylvania certified by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for Golf Courses (ACSP for Golf) program.


(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

For 23 years, Audubon International has operated the ACSP for Golf program that helps to maintain habitats for animals and birds around the world within the private and public golf course environment. ACSP for Golf offers certification for public and private courses that meet certain requirements related to chemical use reduction and safety, outreach and education, water quality management, integrated pest management, wildlife and habitat management, and many other areas. There are 29 ACSP-certified golf courses in Pennsylvania, or 4.3 percent of the Keystone state's 667 golf courses.

On a picture-perfect day, central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator Jen Quinn and I took a field trip to check out the closest certified course to PennFuture's Harrisburg office, the Hershey Country Club, which has been certified since 2010.

(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

Hershey Country Club (HCC) was founded in 1930 by Milton S. Hershey, the Hershey Kisses inventor and Milton Hershey School founder. Some of golf's greatest champions including Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan (former HCC pro), Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard (former HCC pro), and Nancy Lopez have traversed HCC courses over the years. Jen and I toured three HCC courses: East, West, and Spring Creek. Each has its own character and scenic beauty.

On our field trip, we learned that HCC plans its landscapes carefully, with an eye toward balancing aesthetics and conserving natural areas in order to provide habitats for animals and birds. Expanded naturalized areas and removal of invasive species has helped these habitats take root. With community partners, staff conduct education and outreach alongside environmental planning and water conservation. 

(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

Birders, take note: The variety of birds you'll see at HCC will surprise you! Stay tuned for my next guest post, where I'll share some of my favorite bird and nature photos with you and discuss HCC habitat creation and water conservation in greater detail.

Alicia Riegel-Kanth is a Volunteer Policy Associate in our Harrisburg office.

Join us November 13 for "Eat, drink, and chat: A conversation on climate change"

As PennFuture’s new Central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator, my efforts will be focused mainly on water quality issues. For one, I will be working to improve the health of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams as part of our work with the Choose Clean Water Coalition. Another aspect of my job is meeting people and planning events, which in my opinion, is pretty awesome -- and since meeting and getting to know PennFuture’s members and supporters is high on my list, I’d like to invite everyone to Eat, drink, and chat: A conversation on climate change. 

This free (yes, that's right -- free), informal gathering will be an opportunity for you to socialize while learning what’s happening with climate change (and what you can do about it), and will allow me to introduce myself to you. We’ll be joined by PennFuture’s federal policy director, Joy Bergey, and Ed Perry of the National Wildlife Federation. As well, we'll have a very special guest -- PennFuture's new president and CEO, Cindy Dunn. Cindy is delighted to be at the helm and eager to meet our members and supporters, so come on out and join us!

We’ll provide snacks and beverages, but feel free to bring something to share.  Special thanks to the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg for hosting our event.

When- Wednesday, November 13
             6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where- Unitarian Church of Harrisburg
               1280 Clover Lane
               Harrisburg, Pa. 17113

RSVP - by November 11 to quinn at pennfuture dot org