ByNickMalinowski Staff Writer

Members of a local environmental protection group asked Hatboro Borough Council to endorse a project that would preserve a continuous greenway along Pennypack Creek from its headwaters in Bucks and Montgomery counties through to the Delaware River at Monday's council meeting.

Richard Booth and David Robertson, of the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust and the Pennypack Greenway Partnership, presented a video prepared by the organizations describing the Pennypack watershed's role in pubhe recreation and as a sanctuary for wildlife. The video also described how the ecosystem is threatened by further land development, which leads to polluted run-off through poor stormwater management.

"By doing this we feel it will really improve the quality of life of the residents here and downstream, as well as all the animals and plants," Booth said. Robertson and Booth said that completing the connected greenway will not cost Hatboro any money and that borough council would not have to commit to anything immediately.

"We would like the borough's endorsement of our efforts eventually," Robertson said. The partnership is available as a resource to meet with developers, help the borough review ordinances and to educate residents, Robertson said.

Booth acknowledged that there is no easy solution to storm-water management, and that the project is a long-term one.

The proposed greenway is scheduled to be completed in 2015, but budget constraints could push that date back, Booth said. Booth and Robertson suggested that council could form an environmental advisory committee to work on policy, local projects and educating residents about environmental issues.

They introduced Khiet Luong of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, who volunteered his agency's assistance in forming such a committee in Hatboro.

EACs are becoming a growing trend in Pennsylvania, and 17 municipalities in Montgomery County have formed them, Luong said.

Elected officials are often very busy and do not necessarily have the professional expertise to look closely at every environmental issue, he said.

An EAC comprising three to seven community members would create a resource of locally available knowledge that the council could tap into, he said.

Some EACs have a budget, but most do not. he said.

Luong said that the EAC could take on projects such as open space protection, deer management, reviewing recycling programs and creating an environmental resource inventory, to identify the natural features the borough has to protect.

Hatboro already has many municipal committees, so it could be a challenge to determine what exactly the role of an EAC would be, Luong said.

Because some of the traditional committees currently have vacancies, it also might be difficult for the borough to staff a new volunteer committee, he said.

Councilman Bill Tompkins questioned how municipal EACs could be productive without corridor-wide cooperation because local stonn-water management and waterway protection are heavily affected by how programs are implemented in neighboring municipalities.

"You really need a comprehensive approach to a lot of these environmental issues," he said.