If your impression of Lancaster County’s water restoration efforts is based on grant announcements and media events, it might seem as though conservation is easy and quick, Allyson Gibson said.
In fact, it is a complex endeavor that requires sustained attention over decades, she said. Any given project may involve multiple funding sources, property owners, regulatory agencies, collaborative partners — or, as likely as not, all of the above.
That’s why the Lancaster Clean Water Partners organization exists, she told her audience last week at Hourglass Foundation’s November First Friday Forum: To align and coordinate the efforts of all the players around the ultimate goal: Waterways that are 100% “Clean and Clear by 2040.”
Half of those rivers and streams, roughly 700 miles of 1,400 miles countywide, are considered impaired, suffering from excessive levels of bacteria, sediment nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, that reduce aquatic oxygen levels and foster algae growth.
Reversing the damage involves implementing “BMPs,” best management practices, such as planting trees and shrubs along streams, creating riparian buffers that absorb pollutants and hold stream banks in place. Clean Water Partners is funding and coordinating BMPs all over Lancaster County and monitoring the results.
Previously an affiliate of the Lancaster County Conservation District, Clean Water Partners became a nonprofit last year, with Gibson, previously its coordinator, taking on the title of executive director.
The group’s work has regional impact. Lancaster County is the Pennsylvania county most responsible for pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and it is the epicenter of Pennsylvania’s efforts to restore the bay as part of a multi-state compact. The county is being called on to achieve 21% and 23% of Pennsylvania’s mandated nitrogen and phosphorus reduction goals, respectively.
Farmers, including Plain Sect farmers, are buying into the idea, said Terry Martin, the roadmaster and an elected supervisor in Caernarvon Township. Word gets around, and once a few landowners are enthusing about the cleaner water and more abundant wildlife on their property thanks to BMPs, that inspires their neighbors to take an interest as well.
Mike Hudson is an outreach coordinator with Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake. Based in Maryland, it has worked with some 20 or so congregations in Lancaster County and is beginning to make inroads in Dauphin and Lebanon counties.
It provides expertise and referrals to help congregations implement environmental initiatives: Setting up “Creation Care Teams,” conducing “Faithful Green Leader” training, helping churches plant rain gardens to mitigate stormwater runoff from their parking lots.
Stream restoration takes time, Gibson emphasized: Delisting a waterway — restoring it to unimpaired status — can take 10 years and still be considered “rapid.” But efforts in Lancaster County are scaling up and making measurable progress, she said.
Encouragingly, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s 2023-24 Chesapeake Bay report card, released this summer was the best in 22 years. In recognition of Pennsylvania’s contribution, the press announcement was held in Harrisburg, with the Susquehanna River in the background.
The progress in the bay watershed is “huge,” Gibson said, but there’s much more to do. She urged her audience to get involved: Learn about the issue, volunteer for a tree planting, donate, join an action team.
“Be a voice for conservation,” she said, within your own organization or through local government. “That can be a way that you get engaged and bring clean water to the forefront.”
