WPCAMR Western Pennsylvania Coalition
for Abandoned Mine Reclamation

Improved PA Streams

Do you know of a Pennsylvania stream that's made a comeback?

Please tell us about it!

Over the past decade, Pennysvania has made a substantial investment in our environment.  A large emphasis has been in restoring polluted steams and rivers to ones that are fishable and swimable... or in gorvernment parlance, waterways that meet designated use.  Oddly, there hasn't been an integrated effort to actually measure the successfulness of restoration efforts. 

WPCAMR is part of an effort* to identify streams or stream segments that have made an environmental comback. We believe that one of the best ways to identify streams that are rebounding is to ask those who've witnessed it.  We'd like to enlist your help.

If you know of a stream that's made environmental progress in the past dozen or so years, please take a few minutes to tell us about it. (We'd espesially like to know about streams that have made a recovery from abandoned mine drainage pollution.) 

Please click to fill out this simple form. 

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*The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Non-point Source Program has enlisted the aid of WPCAMR to help them find improved streams. 

The information you provide will assist PA DEP biologists in their efforts to target specific streams for a biological reassessment.  If the stream or a segment of the stream has indeed improved, PA DEP could consider it for removal from the list of impaired waterways in the Commonwealth.

The list of impaired waters (formerly known as the 303(d) list) is now part of what is called the "Integrated List".  Impaired waters are those waterways that are not meeting their "designated use", in other words, the biological community in those streams is adversely affected by AMD, sediment, or any number of other pollutants. 

Designated uses are those uses specified in the state's water quality standards for each water body or segment whether or not they are being attained.  An example of a designated use in Pennsylvania is "CWF", meaning a Cold Water Fishery, capable of sustaining a healthy cold water biological community (eg. a trout stream).

Removal of a stream or stream segment from the impaired waters list is a concrete way of showing that pollution reduction projects are having a positive impact on our streams. 

If you think you have a stream or a segment of a stream that was impaired and is now not, we invite you to share what you know by filing out the form at the link below.  By sharing your information, you can help direct state efforts to locate recovered streams.

 

PO Box 295 Luxor, Pennsylvania 15662
email: info@wpcamr.org

© Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation