National Drinking Water Clearinghouse
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6064
Morgantown, WV
26506-6064

Grassroots Watershed Protection
County Group Works to Clean Up Waterways

Story and Photos
by Michelle Moore
NDWC Associate Editor
michelle.moore@mail.wvu.edu

What is a Watershed? The regional area of land from which all precipitation and runoff drain into a single water source is called a watershed. Watersheds are natural divisions of the landscape. Rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, streams, and even the oceans serve as catch basins for the land around them. Groundwater aquifers below the land’s surface serve the same purpose, catching and holding water for the future. Adapted from the U.S. EPA

Rural Greene County in sourthwestern Pennsylvania is a place you’d want to come home to. Its forests, farmlands, and small communities make the area a mecca for folks wanting to escape the rush of urban life.

Many Greene County families have lived there for generations. And the newcomers, well, many have moved in, and they’ve stayed, and now they couldn’t be pried away with a crowbar. They like the dirt roads, the corn fields, and the hillbilly music at the fire halls on Saturday nights.

Streams, creeks, lakes, and a major river wind through the landscape, and similar to a lot of other places in the U.S., these waters have declined in quality over the years. Coal mining dominated the county’s industry for decades, leaving scars on the terrain, as well as polluting creeks and the Monongahela River. Many homes have faulty or inadequate sewage disposal. Erosion, habitat destruction, and polluted runoff (nonpoint source pollution) also contribute significantly to water quality degradation in the watersheds.

This is a story about the Greene County Watershed Alliance (GCWA), a group working to restore and protect the county’s waterways.

Circumstances in your watershed may be very different from those in this Appalachian foothill region. You might live in a coastal zone or in the high desert. Your watershed could be in northwest apple country, or you might live near the Mississippi delta. Wherever you live, there is probably a watershed protection group working to make sure your drinking water remains safe for future generations. (See “The Canaan Valley Institute, Helping Communities Help Themselves” in the spring 2002 On Tap for more information about watersheds and community development.)




Watershed Approach is the Answer
People often don’t realize that what they put into a water body can have an effect far downstream. That’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends taking a “watershed approach” to improving regional water quality. This tactic is based on the EPA’s premise that “many water quality and ecosystem problems are best solved at the watershed level rather than at the individual water body or discharger level . . . managing water resource programs on a watershed basis makes good sense environmentally, financially, and socially.”

Looking at the watershed is the logical starting point for addressing water quality in any given area. In the past, water quality improvement efforts focused primarily on pollution sources, such as sewage or industrial discharges and spills, and the individual water bodies that might be affected. The watershed approach evaluates all potential pollution sources that may be affecting waterways.

Say, for instance, that an abandoned riverside factory site is cleaned up. The adjacent waterway will reflect the improvement. Eliminating specific problem sites may prove successful in the immediate area, but the river’s overall water quality may still be at risk from other chronic problems. Protecting the river’s entire watershed area, from headwaters to end, is the key to ensuring that clean, safe drinking water will be available for the future.

Greene Residents Join Forces
Some of the folks who care most about Greene County banded together to improve and restore its waterways. The GCWA is an umbrella group uniting a number of smaller watershed organizations to become a voice for countywide water quality improvement. The GCWA is a relatively small group in a county with 40,000 people, but when they want to get something done for the waterways, let me tell you, they find a way to do it.

Terri Davin, a biologist and mother of two young children, is the group’s president and inspirational dynamo. She and her family live outside of Rutan, a tiny village in West Greene. Davin says the watershed alliance is made up of everyday people: a full-time mom, an engineer, a fisherman, a nun, a teacher, and a genealogist. That’s not their entire membership, by any means, but you get the idea. A science degree is not required to join.

The GCWA officially began in October 2000 through a Pennsylvania Growing Greener grant for $9,900. These grants were created through the Environmental Stewardship and Watershed Protection Act. Nearly $547 million was allocated for various types of projects, including abandoned mine clean-up, gas or oil well plugging, watershed restoration and protection projects, outreach activities, and demonstration projects.

The major features of a watershed approach are: • targeting priority problems, • promoting strong stakeholder involvement, • integrating solutions using the expertise and authority of various agencies, and • measuring success through monitoring and other data gathering.

Lisa Bennett, the Greene County Conservation District’s (GCCD) watershed specialist and technical advisor, helped the alliance get started. Part of their initial work was to “get their name out there,” as Bennett put it, “so that people would know that there is a group, an organization that they can belong to.”

Bennett knew that it was nearly impossible to get people to come together all at once for a cause. But she “set out on a mission to go around the whole county” to arouse watershed protection support.

“I went to just about every township building in the county and held meetings,” Bennett said. “Some places I had two people show up, and some places I had 10 or 15 people. Those who showed up seemed like they were interested in doing something. So after the meetings, I sent out letters, told them again what I was doing, and that I was going to write a grant to get them money for starting the groups.”

Like Davin, Bennett said that the people who wanted to be part of the watershed protection group are just nice, country folks. “They haven’t been out sampling and monitoring. They’ve never gone down to the streams and turned over rocks looking for little creatures. They’re just fisherman, farmers, and people from town, anybody who’s concerned about what’s going on in their area.”

GCWA’s start-up grant money helped them buy equipment, like a computer, a printer, a camera, and other supplies. To spread word about their mission, the alliance needed postcards and stamps, and they needed to create and distribute informational brochures.

Bennett said people were very excited right from the beginning. “They wanted to get grants and do this and that, but you can’t do it all right away. In the last two years, they’ve done very well, especially how much information they’ve passed out, how much ‘press time’ they’ve had. They’ve been in the papers a lot.”

Spread the Message
At least once a month, the GCWA has public meetings with speakers, like department of environmental protection representatives, who answer questions. Township and school district officials are usually invited. Postcards are sent to interested residents. The GCWA sets up an information booth at local festivals and at the annual county fair. Notices always run in the newspapers to alert the public of any meetings, work projects, or accomplishments.

“Our group is mainly educational,” Bennett said. “We’ll talk about anything from septic problems, mining, garbage, logging, keeping the streams clean, and keeping people out of the streams—it’s not good when people take trucks and tractors into streams or try to straighten out a stream.”

Needless to say, the hardest thing for the alliance is attracting enough public involvement. But, as Bennet says, “There’s always someone who is really concerned about water problems in their area.” (See the Spring 2002 On Tap for more information about public participation.)

Funding Makes Projects Reality
Greene County has 10 major watersheds and countless subwatersheds. Davin said she’s hoping that eventually all 10 will have local residents actively working to protect water quality. Some of the watershed advocacy groups, like the Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy and the Dunkard Creek Watershed Association, have been around for years.

“We have so many subwatersheds in the county” Bennett said. “I thought it would be nice to have a representative from each one who could be the watchdog or steward, someone who would speak on behalf of that area. So far we’ve got people from Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek, Enlow Fork, Dunkard Creek, and Muddy Creek. The majority of the folks are from the South Fork of the Ten Mile, the largest watershed we have.”

According to an August 2002 Washington Observer report, Greene County received $1.3 million in watershed project funds. The largest, $958,910, is being used to rebuild a wetlands area for treating discharge from an abandoned mine. Another grant for $235,662 is for developing agricultural best management practices. The county conservation district office will work with farmers installing stream bank fencing, improving livestock watering facilities, stabilizing stream crossings, reducing barnyard runoff, and building manure storage facilities.

The watershed alliance also received a grant to help organize a new group, the East Dunkard Creek Watershed Association, and another to conduct an assessment of the Ruff Creek watershed in the northern part of the county.

In addition to fundraising and educating the public, alliance members occasionally get together to work on stream restoration and clean-up projects. In fall 2001, 15 or so people in the GCWA helped plant trees along streams located in state game lands, creating more stable banks and reducing erosion. The volunteers took about an hour to plant 108 trees of five different varieties—some fast work. Bennett said that once the trees get established, their root systems hold stream banks better than grasses.

GCWA also participated in the GCCD’s River Sweep 2002 to eliminate an illegal dump located down a steep bank along Dunkard Creek. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection provided dumpsters, garbage bags, and drinks. The small but mighty group of five spent the morning scouring a hillside loaded with trash, appliances, and rotting furniture. Once again their enthusiasm is obvious: they filled a dumpster in just a couple of hours.

Students Get Involved
As with most plans for making a healthier environment, getting young people involved has plenty of benefits. First of all, when projects are outdoors and active, kids learn things that will last them a lifetime. And second, they are eager and curious, and they’ll take the ball and run with it when given the chance.

The alliance knew the power of enlisting this homegrown resource so they applied for and received a grant for youth-based stream monitoring. (Stream monitoring helps identify polluted areas.) The program is coordinated with science teachers in the county’s five school districts, and they are trained about proper sampling techniques and developing monitoring plans.

The grant helped buy water pollution Lamott test kits, GPS( global positioning system)units, and macroinvertebrate guidebooks. (Certain populations of macroinvertebrates tolerate pollution, making them perfect pollution indicators.)

“We train the teachers to do water quality sampling, then the high school science classes will test streams in each watershed,” Davin said. “We’ll be taking kids out who have never done anything like this before.

“When we get all the data from the streams, we’ll load it into GIS (geographic information system) software we bought for the county vo-tech school’s drafting class. Then we’ll have water quality data on many of the streams in the county.”

Bennett said that luckily most of the school districts are in different watersheds so students can record data from each of them.

“This program gets kids out into the streams, gets them interested, and asking questions,” Bennett said. “Someday later down the road, they’ll end up being good stewards, whether they’re living here or 500 miles away."

Accomplishments Are Many
Since that first grant award back in October 2000, the GCWA hasn’t stopped working. They continue to educate people about surface effects of underground mining. They’ve identified county areas damaged by acid mine drainage. They help other grassroots watershed organizations with advice and technical assistance. The group participates in annual tree plantings to establish riparian stream buffers. They have River Sweeps, and they maintain a Web site. The GCWA is delighted with their the youth-based water quality monitoring program and with public workshops on watershed issues. They’ve conducted numerous stream restoration projects. With all these accomplishments, Greene County’s Watershed Alliance provides an example for others to live up to.

Top Ten Tips for Watershed Organizations Local watershed organizations can help develop and carry out local solutions to water quality and quantity problems and in helping to prevent future problems. These tips were gathered from successful watershed groups: 1. Build and maintain relationships. Many people share your watershed, and they often have different points of view. Your efforts will be more successful if you involve other groups, individuals, and agencies early; identify interests you share; and work toward a shared vision. This isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. 2. Set clear goals that are easy to explain. It will be easier to get support—both financial support and volunteers—if people understand what you are trying to do and how it relates to them. 3. Make sure everyone involved knows the basics. Many people did not learn much about watersheds in school and information about your specific watershed may not be widely available. 4. Develop a watershed plan. The plan should describe current conditions in your watershed, what goals you want to reach and how you will get there. Outline your budget needs. This provides your group with a “map” to follow and can also be used in seeking financial support. 5. Demonstrate results early. Pick a project that fits into your overall plan—then do it. A successful project, even a small one, will get people excited, interested, and feeling that they can accomplish something. It also shows potential financial supporters that you have the ability to get things done. 6. Give project participants good publicity. This is especially good to do when a local business has allowed its employees to participate on work time. Public recognition is a great thank you. Use local newspapers and organizations’ newsletters. 7. Look for diverse funding sources. Because many funding sources are designed for specific types of activities, you probably will have to piece them together to meet your overall watershed goals. Also, many government grants require local matching funds or in-kind services. Private foundations are often more flexible but may favor groups that can attract several funding sources. Make sure you are aware of the administrative requirements for any grant you pursue and the time schedule for receiving the funds by contacting the potential funder. 8. Look for other types of support. Businesses and local governments may be able to provide services or materials more readily than cash. Try to make it easy for them to say “yes” by looking at your request from their perspective. Local colleges and universities may be able to help with inventories and surveys. 9. Enlist the support of your local government officials. Someone in your group may already have a working relationship with your local officials and be willing to make calls or visits. Various state and federal agencies may also be able to help Adapted from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

For more information
Contact the GCWA at (724) 852-5278. You can e-mail Terri Davin at tdavin@greenepa.net or Lisa Bennett at lbennett@co.greene.pa.us.

For more information about forming or joining a watershed protection group in your area, begin by checking with your state’s environmental protection office.

The EPA created the Watershed Academy to help local groups manage, protect, and improve watersheds. Their distance learning program, the Watershed Academy Web, is a set of self-paced training modules that give a broad, basic introduction to watershed management. The program includes the most important watershed management topics that local officials, decision makers, and others should be aware of. Learn more about the EPA’s online watershed management training at www.epa.gov/watertrain and at www.epa.gov/ owow/watershed/wacademy/ catalog.html.

The Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers (POWR) offers “How to Form Your Own Watershed Association in Pennsylvania,” a fact pack that includes a book and video. Contact them at (717) 234-7910 or by writing to 25 North Front Street, P.O. Box 765, Harrisburg, PA 17108.

Funding sources for watershed protection are located at www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/funding.html. A catalog of federal funding sources for watershed protection can be downloaded from www.epa.gov/ owow/watershed/wacademy/fund.html.
Additional watershed protection information can be found at www.rivernetwork.org.

About the Author
Michelle Moore is the promotions editor for the National Drinking Water Clearinghouse and a lifelong resident of southwestern Pennsylvania.