Cleaning Debris from the Orrs Bridge 9-16-10

Creek Clean-Up July 17

Volunteers are needed for the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association and the Mechanicsburg Area Environmental Club’s creek cleanup from 8:45 a.m. to noon July 17.


Volunteers should assemble at the Willow Mill Park pavilion. A van will transport volunteers to the work site and back.

Sturdy shoes, sunscreen and a hat are recommended.

Creek Clean-Up May 15

On, Saturday, May 15th, from 8:45 until noonish, the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association and the Mechanicsburg Area Environmental Club will be hosting their first creek cleanup of 2010.

Please mark your calendar. We need all of the help that we can get. Consider inviting your friends.

We will start off in 2010 by cleaning the section of the Conodoguinet Creek between a log cabin 100 yards downstream from the Rich Valley Golf/ I81Bridge. We will exit on Beechcliff Drive.

Before 8:45, we will park our vehicles and assemble by the Willow Mill Park pavilion. Vans will then transport all volunteers to the “entry point”. Upon completion, the vans will drive us back to our vehicles in Willow Mill Park.

Directions to the Willow Mill Park Pavilion: Take Route 114 north from the Carlisle Pike. After the first traffic light, get in the left lane. At the 2nd traffic light turn left onto Willow Mill Park Road. Proceed to the stop sign at the old mill. Keep right. After passing the mill, stay to your right. Enter the park. Continue staying to the right.

If the pavilion is rented that day, we will ask you to park beyond the pavilion in the grass.

Consider wearing sturdy creek shoes, sun block, a hat with a visor, and appropriate gloves. The objects in the water and the creek's shale bed can be dangerously sharp.

Please ask others to help out! This is a very worthwhile/satisfying way to spend your best Saturday morning, ever.

See you on May 15th in the creek.

Paul Garrett, creek cleanup leader; (h) 737-2554, (c) 514-3546, e-mail paulgarrett40@comcast.net.

Creek Cleanup May 15

On, Saturday, May 15th, from 8:45 until noonish, the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association and the Mechanicsburg Area Environmental Club will be hosting their first creek cleanup of 2010.

Please mark your calendar. We need all of the help that we can get. Consider inviting your friends.

We will start off in 2010 by cleaning the section of the Conodoguinet Creek between a log cabin 100 yards downstream from the Rich Valley Golf/ I81Bridge. We will exit on Beechcliff Drive.

Before 8:45, we will park our vehicles and assemble by the Willow Mill Park pavilion. Vans will then transport all volunteers to the “entry point”. Upon completion, the vans will drive us back to our vehicles in Willow Mill Park.

Directions to the Willow Mill Park Pavilion: Take Route 114 north from the Carlisle Pike. After the first traffic light, get in the left lane. At the 2nd traffic light turn left onto Willow Mill Park Road. Proceed to the stop sign at the old mill. Keep right. After passing the mill, stay to your right. Enter the park. Continue staying to the right.
If the pavilion is rented that day, we will ask you to park beyond the pavilion in the grass.
Consider wearing sturdy creek shoes, sun block, a hat with a visor, and appropriate gloves. The objects in the water and the creek's shale bed can be dangerously sharp.

Please ask others to help out! This is a very worthwhile/satisfying way to spend your best Saturday morning, ever.

See you on May 15th in the creek.
Paul Garrett, creek cleanup leader; (h) 737-2554, (c) 514-3546, e-mail paulgarrett40@comcast.net.

P.S. Reminder that Paul Garrett will be out of town for the June cleanup. Someone else can head it up or we skip to July. Please keep me in the loop, as you make that decision.

What would you like in your water?

What would you like in your water?

Lemon? Perhaps. But you are likely to get much more. Sewage from overtaxed and outdated sewer systems. Runoff from city streets. Excess fertilizer from suburban lawns. Manure from farm animals. All of this runs into our rivers and streams and, for much of the state, eventually winds up in the Chesapeake Bay.

It's actually pretty amazing that our sewage treatment plants are able to clean up our water so that it's drinkable. But we haven't been able to protect our rivers and streams for swimming and boating, and fish are getting scarce. And the further downstream you go, the worse the problems are.

Getting the Chesapeake Bay healthy again means we have to restore the health of the Juniata, Conodoguinet, Octoraro, Loyalsock and Susquehanna rivers and their tributaries, which flow into the Bay. It's going to take work and targeted investments, but the payoff will be felt throughout the Pennsylvania, and all the way down to the Bay.

This problem isn't new. In fact, our entire region has been promising to fix it for more than 25 years. Unfortunately, those promises have mostly just been promises, without much action. And the Chesapeake Bay and all the waters leading into it have gotten dirtier and dirtier.

For too many years, different groups and different regions played the blame game rather than taking responsibility for the harm they caused to the Bay. Those finger pointing days are now over, and there are three new strategies and new funding so that everyone can take this issue on. And rather than rely on promises, the new strategies provide incentives to do the right thing, and penalties for those who don't.

First off, the federal courts have stepped in. There is now a court ordered plan - everyone must go on a pollution diet. All of the states must develop a plan (called a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL) by the end of this year, showing how and where they will cut pollution to avoid going over their pollution cap.

Second, the Obama Administration has issued an Executive Order requiring all the departments of the federal government to develop a far-reaching strategy to protect and improve the Chesapeake Bay. This includes increasing public access, protecting natural resources, improving water quality, adapting to climate change.

Finally, there is comprehensive legislation in Congress that will give everyone involved in fixing the problem much of the funding needed to actually clean up our waters. The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act, introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Elijah Cummings to expand the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program, will help us stay on our the court-ordered TMDL pollution diet. The bill makes everyone involved accountable for cleanup, and provides federal oversight for restoring clean water in our region. It also uses a market- based approach, rewarding those who meet the pollution reduction goals, and provides $1.5 billion in funding and technical assistance to our farmers and municipalities in order to meet the cleanup goals mandated under the court-ordered TMDL. Unfortunately, no member of the Pennsylvania delegation has agreed to cosponsor this legislation - yet.

The fact is, the TMDL pollution diet is coming, whether this legislation is passed or not. Signing on to the bill will mean we get the funding we desperately need to comply with the courts' order. With it, we'll get technical assistance, but without it, we're on our own. Supporting the bill seems like a no-brainer to us.

After all, wouldn't it be nice to know that the only thing in your water is lemon?


http://www.pennfuture.org/media_pff_detail.aspx?MediaID=1120&Home=Y

Creek Clean-up Report

There are many people in our community dedicated to the health of the Conodoguinet. Here's just one example of the efforts of the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association:

Here's an excerpt from the report on the clean-up on July 15. The area cleaned is to the west of Bent Creek Blvd. that flows north, downstream from the PA 114 bridge.

The morning went extremely well…EVERYONE WORKED TOGETHER SUPER WELL AS A TEAM! …except there was so much trash in that stretch that we had both boats filled to unbelievable heights before we got two-thirds of the way finished. The canoe sank once and had to be reloaded. We got out of the creek exhausted at 2:00ish and then had to carry the trash and the boats up that hill. By the time we got the first load on the trailer it was 3:00ish. Twenty-one tires, 2 large, open drums, one 4x8 sheet of 5/8 “ plywood with roofing materials still on it, one 12 foot wooden ladder, lots of old glass bottles and the normal debris!

I want to suggest that in August, we get in at yesterday’s exit point, float down to a little below where we stopped picking up and then work our way back up. We had to leave about 15 tires behind…one washing machine…one tv…one microwave… one wet cell battery…at least three 55 gallon drums with some liquid in them…vinyl siding… lots of old bottles, +, +, +. That stretch had more trash in it than any other stretch that we have cleaned since 1998!!!!!!!!!!

We all can help. As we're paddling, fishing and tubing (or whatever), please make a concerted effort to bring back and dispose of at least one piece of trash you encountered that day. Every little bit helps. Thanks for the consideration.