Water Resources

Pennsylvania’s 84,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with our lakes, wetlands and aquifers provide more than our drinking supply and recreation: they are our economy, our heritage and our future.  For over a century, we treated them with disdain, without regard to the impacts on human health or the ecology. Nearly 15,000 miles of stream in Pennsylvania are not drinkable, fishable or swimmable – 34 times the length of the Susquehanna River and 46 times the length of the Allegheny. PEC has focused its expertise and experience into the Center of Excellence for Water Resources, which addresses abandoned mine drainage, stormwater management and a program for trading credits for removing excess nutrients and sediment from streams.


Water Resources Programs

  • Beaver River Conservation and Management Plan

    The Beaver River Conservation and Management Plan outlines an approach for implementing future conservation-oriented efforts for the Beaver River corridor in Beaver and Lawrence Counties.

  • Environmental Advisory Council Network

    The EAC Network helps local officials make sound environmental decisions within and across municipal boundaries. The Network promotes and supports Environmental Advisory Councils, who are appointed volunteers at work protecting the environment through project implementation,…

  • Forested Buffer for Environmental Credits Project

    Partnership installed a forested riparian buffer to demonstrate how a corporation can fund a conservation project yielding measurable environmental credits that can be recognized by state and/or federal environmental credit registries and potentially be sold…

  • French Creek Project

    PEC co-founded the French Creek Project in 1995. French Creek later was designated by the Nature Conservancy as one of its original “Last Great Places.”

  • French Creek Stormwater Management

    PEC manages an alternative stormwater Best Management Practice (BMP) project in urban areas of the French Creek watershed (i.e., in areas of already high percentages of impervious surface cover and in areas of increasing percentages…

  • Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards Gala

    For the past two years, PEC has hosted a gala dinner in celebration of the recipients of the Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards.

  • Great Lakes Conservation and Restoration

    PEC works with multiple stakeholders throughout the Lake Erie basin and across the state and Great Lakes basin to promote the conservation and restoration of Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes.

  • iConservePA Partnership

    PEC is a proud partner of DCNR's iConservePA program, which inspires individuals to play a role in protecting and conserving Pennsylvania's treasured lands, rivers, plants and wildlife. PEC encourages our members and partners to become…

  • Land Conservation Initiatives

    PEC works with communities, landowners and land trusts to conserve properties along the thousands of miles of shoreline in Western Pennsylvania to protect water quality and maintain both natural and working landscapes.

  • Pine Creek Watershed Coalition

    PEC convened a stakeholder meeting in 2001 to discuss the issues in the Pine Creek Watershed and initiated a watershed assessment the following year. As a result, a Coalition of environmental organizations, sportsmen's groups,…