Protecting SEPA's Water Resouces
The Delaware River Basin, the largest undammed river east of the Mississippi, supplies water to millions from New York to Philadelphia, and supports a diverse industrial, service, and farming economy. With so many people living in the region, our watersheds become increasingly urbanized and our limited amount of open space experiences intense development pressure. Many urban communities are extensively paved, and are served by storm systems that discharge water directly into streams with few, if any, water quality or quantity controls.
New research shows that sustainable natural resource management and conservation cannot be achieved by technical, scientific solutions alone. Conservation efforts, especially in developed areas where people represent a significant element of the ecosystem must emphasize social revitalization alongside environmental restoration. This long-term effort will have to incorporate, understand, and utilize urban ecological forces in order to improve water quality, revitalize older, inner ring suburb communities, and improve the quality of life for the residents who live, work, play, and invest in these communities.
The Council's role has been to facilitate change as new federal stormwater regulations begin to impact municipalities throughout the Commonwealth. The Council's water resources initiative is focused on partnership-building, demonstration projects, developing solutions to current policy initiatives, and promoting a collaborative and comprehensive approach to water resource management.
- To lead site specific demonstration projects that enable municipalities to learn first-hand how new technologies and practices work and how to respond best to the mandates posed by the stormwater regulations.
- To develop strategies that facilitate the broad acceptance and implementation through innovations such as the assessment of stormwater financing options and the evaluation of the effectiveness sediment trading within watersheds.
- Completed 16 stormwater BMP retrofit concept designs throughout the Neshaminy, Chester/Ridley Crum, and Cobbs Creek watersheds. Several sites have been or are in the process of being implemented - Upper Darby, Rutledge Borough and Yeadon Borough.
- With funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Council collaborates with the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), Lankenau Hospital and Lower Merion Township in a wetland restoration in the Cobbs Creek watershed.
- Cobbs Creek Wetland Restoration: The Council continues to work with PWD and other partners to move this project to the implementation phase. This project is one of many projects that focus on implementing the Cobbs Creek Integrated Watershed Management Plan.
- Partnership Building: For the past several years, the Council has collaborated with the PWD's Office of Watersheds to build successful partnerships in the region's urban watersheds - first the Darby-Cobbs, then the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford, the Wissahickon, and most recently the Pennypack. The continued success of these watershed partnerships hinges on the Council's ability to attract all concerned parties, encourage open dialogue, and find common ground to promote watershed protection and revitalization.
- Innovative Approaches to Water Quality Improvements: The Council is in the early stages of developing a pilot water quality trading project for the Wissahickon watershed in Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. The process will focus on meeting current sediment reduction goals for the least cost using stormwater trading as a vehicle. The project will develop an illustrative demonstration project for the Wissahickon watershed that brings public and private sectors together to begin implementing the watershed's sediment Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements. The aim is to create a reliable, yet flexible process that involves all stakeholders to promote environmental stewardship and fair-share cost allocation solutions. The Wissahickon Stormwater Trading Initiative will enable stakeholders in this watershed to develop cooperatively a trading process, and in turn verify and improve upon Pennsylvania's new trading policy and program and begin to implement a strategy for implementing the watershed's TMDL.