Two watershed restoration plans coordinated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in Pennsylvania will receive over $3 million in direct federal funding in the fiscal year 2022 omnibus spending package signed recently by President Biden. One of these is the Pequea Creek Watershed restoration plan in Lancaster and Chester counties, for which Sens. Bob Casey and Ben Cardin requested $2.18 million. It was the first time in a decade that senators were able to request funds for specific projects in annual appropriations bills. The Pequea Creek watershed feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.

Partners developing and implementing the two plans with CBF include county conservation districts, local watershed and conservation organizations, academic institutions, state and local government agencies, local businesses, planning agencies, landowners, farmers, and residents.

Within the 150-square-mile Pequea Creek Watershed, the federal investment will support practices that keep soils and nutrients on the land instead of in the water with such practices as cover crops, no-till agriculture, nutrient management, animal waste management, riparian buffers, streambank fencing, streambank stabilization, and reducing legacy sediment. Originating in a small portion of western Chester County, the Pequea watershed extends through the heart of Lancaster County. Planned changes are also intended to help meet the nutrient and sediment reduction goals set forth in the Countywide Action Plan in Lancaster County, noted Brian Gish, the CBF watershed coordinator who drafted the Pequea plan.

The Pequea Creek restoration plan was approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and is awaiting final Environmental Protection Agency approval; once approved by both organizations, its implementation will be eligible for federal funding through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

Gish is now working with others on new watershed restoration plans for Marsh Creek in Centre County and the Upper Conestoga in Lancaster, Berks, and Chester counties.