Grants awarded to clean water projects
One of Berks County’s high quality, class A trout streams will get protection from agricultural pollution through a grant recently announced by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The Berks County Conservation District received a $381,494 grant to help farmers implement agricultural best management practices in the KittatinnyPine Creek watershed.
The Pine Creek in Albany Township is home to naturally reproducing brook and brown trout. According to the Fish and Game Commission, it is a stream that supports a population of naturally produced trout of sufficient size and abundance to support a long-term and rewarding sport fishery.
The Kittatinny Ridge is an 185-mile unbroken forested ridge that is a part of the Appalachian Mountain range. It is home to Hawk Mountain and is the headwaters for the Pine, Furnace and Northkill creeks.
The lower reaches of the Pine Creek are listed as a cold-water fishery and have been degraded by nutrients including agricultural nutrients, specifically nitrates, and phosphates, including sediments, DEP said.
The project is one of four projects in Berks that received funding through DEP’s Growing Greener. There were 43 projects to clean up waters in the state’s southcentral region selected to collectively receive more than $12 million.
Statewide, more than $34 million has been awarded to fund 149 projects to clean up waters. Grantees have up to three years to implement the projects.
The Berks conservation district also received $385,000 to implement riparian forest buffers in the
Chesapeake Bay and watersheds impaired by agricultural sources.
A riparian is is vegetated area near a stream that helps shade and protect it from land uses. The shrubs and trees near the stream play a role in keeping pollution or runoff out of the stream.
The conservation district also received $67,485 to improve the quality of the impaired sections of Little Swatara Creek in Tulpehocken Township by reducing the nutrient and sediment pollution from an organic egg farm to Little Swatara’s tributaries.
The project will implement stream exclusionary fencing, roofed heavy-use area protection, an animal waste storage system, animal trails and walkways, stream crossings, off-site watering facilities, and a prescribed grazing plan in the Upper Little Swatara Creek and Chesapeake Bay Watersheds, according to DEP.
Also, Shoemakersville received $42,200 for its storm sewer pollution control bioswale.
DEP says Growing Greener is the largest single investment of state funds in Pennsylvania’s history to address environmental concerns of the 21st century.
Growing Greener aims to cut the backlog of farmland-preservation projects statewide; protect open space; eliminate the maintenance backlog in state parks; clean up abandoned mines and restore watersheds; provide funds for recreational trails and local parks; help communities address land use; and provide new and upgraded water and sewer systems, DEP said.
Other regional large projects in the southcentral region include a storm water retrofit by Conewago Township in Adams County. Fifteen Lancaster
County projects received a total of more than $5.9 million, and eight York
County projects received a total of more than $1.9 million.