Wildlife and clean water run through it

By Cindy Adams Dunn, PennFuture President & CEO

I was fortunate enough to grow up in an area teeming with wildlife and wild plants -- our rural home even had a small stream running through the property. When we were small, we were allowed to fish there, alone, long before we were allowed to walk downstream to the much larger creek. Some days we fished with real fishing rods, but many days we just “pretend” fished with a stick and string, or played in the water. I liked to watch the small trout in the pools as they cruised their small world in the dappled sunlight.

At that stage in my life, I never knew it was a headwaters trout stream, but I did know it was special. Over time, a road carved into the mountain upstream by developers changed the characteristics of the stream so that flood waters blew out the banks, carried silt and sediment and eventually, there we no trout – just minnows and crayfish.

More recently, I have learned to reconnect with that childhood fun by fishing in headwaters streams. A few years ago, my nephews and I crept up to the headwater pools in Laurel Hill Creek. Seeing the trout in their pool before they see you, and crawling through the brush, is part of the game. With hooks bent to avoid harming the fish, it is all about tricking the small trout to biting. It is a big adventure in a small creek for a small fish.

I know all too well what happens to these streams where there is upstream development or pollution. Even a single road or crossing can disrupt the delicate balance.

Pennsylvania House Bill 1576 has received a lot of attention because of its attack on the professional and scientific process of designating and protecting our state’s precious natural legacy. A who’s who of special interests is supporting the bill in order to ease the regulation of threatened and endangered species as well as Wild Trout Stream designations. The real driver of the bill is the natural gas industry, whose roads, pads and pipelines intersect with wetlands, headwaters and remote areas where threatened and endangered species are found. 

When the gas industry, or any interest, is planning a project, they are owed a timely and accurate answer on the potential impact of development on threatened and endangered species.

The three Pennsylvania agencies that regulate this process – the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Game Commission -- have made great strides in updating data, mapping, and response time. The vast majority of the time, projects are unimpeded by the protection of a species, and the response time has improved substantially where there is a threatened or endangered species in the project area.These agencies are also in the process of updating the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity environmental review tool, which will make further enhancements to the process by which permit applicants can better review and plan their projects. 

But the real answer here is to support more scientists, more data, better tools and a serious conversation about how to improve the program. The answer is certainly not a bill that would strip away protection and put the bar too high for already overburdened scientists. These folks are already working plenty hard to protect and improve the natural inheritance we will leave to future inhabitants of Penn’s Woods who may choose to venture down to a clean stream in their midst.

VICTORY: The 2010 clean water regulations

This post is one in a month-long series speaking to 15 of PennFuture's significant victories. It was 15 years ago this September that we began our work to protect the environment and champion a clean energy economy.

In 2010, Pennsylvania adopted a pair of crucial clean water regulations that protect the drinking water of millions of Pennsylvanians and the health of our very best streams. PennFuture worked in concert with a coalition of organizations to pass both regulations.

One regulation protects over 20,000 miles of our best streams by requiring that new development projects along Exceptional Value and High Quality streams must maintain a 150-foot buffer between earth disturbances and the waterways. These buffers are one of the most cost-effective and best management practices available to control sediment and nutrient pollution of our streams and rivers. Vegetative buffers also reduce storm water pollution, create and protect wildlife habitat, and are vital to the health of cold water fish species.

The other regulation created a total dissolved solids (TDS) standard for waste water treatment that protects aquatic life and the quality of our drinking water. In particular, the regulation requires gas drilling companies that discharge water polluted with TDS to treat the discharges to meet safe drinking water standards.

In 2008, high TDS levels in the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh affected the drinking water supplied to over 330,000 people. The high TDS levels also threatened to shut down industrial facilities, including some owned by U.S. Steel, that depend on fresh river water for their operations.

Unconventional shale gas operations usually result in high levels of TDS, primarily chlorides, because of substances in the shale that dissolve during hydrofracturing operations. Thanks to these regulations, the drilling industry now must treat its waste water to the higher standards. As a result, more and more gas companies are moving to recycle their waste water.

PennFuture will celebrate 15 years of environmental victories on September 25. Please consider joining us!