Of Natural Concern (1969)

In spite of all the talk, in spite of all the talk about what we should do about our environment, there's still a huge gap between the action and the rhetoric. We had a Senate hearing just last week, last Wednesday, on the budget concerned with Pennsylvania's environment. Not one conservation organization showed up at that hearing. Not one student group showed up at that hearing. There wasn't one outside organization represented. any water changed by man's activities is potentially polluted and it's on this basis that I would like to discuss with you some of the types of pollution that we should look for. I'm disturbed at times uh Toby Creek people are represented. I have driven up to Clarion many times and upon crossing Toby Creek I've had a passenger in my car saying my what a beautiful stream. Well, it is a beautiful stream from that standpoint. It is crystal clear. You can see 6 ft to the bottom of the pools, but it's a biological wasteland. >> This is something that cannot just be done from the state level. It cannot just be done at the federal level. It has to begin at the local level. We need local people to keep the federal and state agencies working as a team. And the effective association is based on good communications which are based on the spoken word, the written word, photographs, charts and exhibits. And the whole blessed thing is based on whether you're doing anything, based on your activity. as somebody said up there, uh, golly, that you can talk all you want, but if you're not doing anything, it really doesn't get through. You have to have some projects going. And I'm not saying this is not true. In fact, it's it's the basic thing. If you don't have programs, you can't talk about them. Take me to the mountains. Take me to the sea. Take me where the winds blowing wild. Show me a land in the clear morning light. Let me see with the eyes of a child. Why must we live all our days in the shade? Can't we walk in the warmth of the sun? Show me a land in the clear morning light. Can't we learn from the wrongs we have done? A waterhed is the drainage area of a river or stream. It includes both land and water resources. A whed's boundaries are defined by natural ridges, not by county or municipal borders. All the water that falls within these boundaries eventually drains into one stream. Everyone lives in a waterhed. The Brandy Wine Valley Association was started in 1945 when Clayton Hoff in Wilmington, Delaware, and some friends of his became interested in doing something about cleaning up the Brandy Wine. And they found friends in Chester County who had the same interest. And so they started an organization to see what the people could do to clean up the stream and conserve the soil and make the valley a better place to live. >> Watershed Association's work. The Brandywine Valley Association encourages the farmers of the area to be more conservation-minded in the management of their farms to use contour strips, for example, on sloping terrain rather than laying bare an entire hillside. These efforts have reduced by 50% the amount of mud or silt flowing into the brandy wine. Silt is a serious and costly stream pollutant. It destroys much of the life of a stream, and industries and towns must pay to filter out the mud before they can use the water. Agriculture is not the only source of siltation and erosion. New housing developments cause siltation because a developer usually bulldozes off a large area of earth at one time. And this is pretty difficult to get under control because it's several months frequently before the houses are finished and lawns have been established. So far, most of the zoning laws don't pay too much to too much attention to a building development. Uh the what we're hoping will happen is that they will impose some kinds of regulations which will limit the amount of earth which can be torn up at one time by a developer that they will require him to do such things as mulching, seeding a ryrass for example, and putting in catchment basins. So there will be less silt. An expanding population puts increased pressure on the environment and its waste and sewage cannot safely reenter any natural cycle without being specially processed. The Brandywine Valley Association in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Health helps get municipalities within the wershed to join together in the construction of regional sewage treatment facilities. Industrial waste is another pollution problem that can be dealt with more effectively when state agencies and local wershed associations work as a team. The sanitary water board with the help of the Brandy Wine Valley Association took action to persuade manufacturers to invest in and install waste removal equipment so that the water used by industry can be returned to the stream as clean as when first taken out. watershed associations work. >> We now have a cleaner brandy wine. We have a reduction of almost 50% in the amount of silt or mud going down the brandy wine. And we have, of course, a more beautiful valley. This area is the McConnell's Mills Gorge on the Slipper Rock Creek whed. Not only one of the most beautiful sections of our watershed, but until 1964, one of the most heavily fished sections of Butler County. In July of 1964, a very unusual rainfall pattern flushed over 50,000 lbs of acid through this section of the stream, creating a fish kill of such magnitude that thousands of fish were seen floating over this dam down through the gorge. Species such as trout and bass hotly prized by fishermen. The public was so aroused that in October of 1964, the Slipper Rock Creek Wershed Association was formed to attempt to reclaim the entire stream. Coal is a natural resource essential to commerce and technology. In the past, however, the mining of coal has often left behind certain unfortunate byproducts. When coal is exposed to water and air, a chemical reaction takes place. The result is sulfuric acid. Acid that caused the slippery rock creek fish kill. Acid that runs from countless small streams into numerous larger streams, destroying their productivity for generations. >> Wershed association is composed of some rather impatient people and we didn't feel that we could wait until permanent reclamation measures were found through research. So we asked the department of mines if we couldn't have a very quick method and the lime plant that now exists in the north branch of the slippery rock provides immediate neutralization for the stream. The lime treatment plant represents a significant investment by the state. Lime is added to the stream neutralizing the acid and making the water again capable of sustaining normal aquatic life. The Slippery Rock Creek Wershed Association played a key role in getting the lime treatment plant built. Watershed Association's work. The association's had several major accomplishments. Uh you're looking at one of these in the background due to the work of some of the members of the association. We have convinced the Department of Mines and the Department of Forest and Waters that reclamation measures would have to be taken to provide a productive lake. These measures have been completed and we are expecting uh tremendous fishing in this particular reservoir. >> Not all sections of the state have been as successful in reclaiming a damaged environment. Not all sections of the state have local watershed associations. >> Take me to the mountains. Take me to the sea. Take me where the winds blowing wild. Show me a land in the clear morning light. Let me see with the eyes of a child. Why must we live all our days in the shade? Can't we walk in the warmth of the sun? Show me a land in the clear morning light. Can't we learn from the wrongs we have done? Watershed associations concern themselves with the full range of land and water abuses. The success of associations like Brandy Wine and Slippery Rock have led people who want to take effective action against pollution to begin by forming a local watershed association. I guess I just sort of got fed up with everything our area seeing all our hillsides and creek banks littered with trash. People were stowing about the acid in the water. Sewage dumping right into the creek. not having a clean stream in the area because of my occupation. I travel over half of the state and I see how other communities live and I feel why can't we have that in our place here in our territory. So I just went out and thought I'd do something about it and started the watershed association >> right over the mountain so to speak. We have quite a few problems because we have residential areas rather large ones and they have what I consider to be a very large problem that they do not have sewage treatment plants and the populace is putting all of their sewage directly into the stream. >> The whole area is just plainly depressing. industry won't locate here because of the appearance. We're in a little pocket here of our own and uh the antright region really and uh something has to be done. You just go a few miles away from here when you're out of the coal regions and the environment is completely different. >> When we became very concerned about this pollution, some of us had not realized how bad the situation was. When we asked what could be done about it, he informed us about the watershed association. >> All of our environment is not ravaged. Not yet. Throughout the state, there are still thousands of acres of unspoiled woodlands and thousands of miles of clean streams. Watershed associations work. They work to preserve and protect the environment as well as to repair it. Although often something must be lost before it is fully appreciated. >> Well, we had the um the highway department decided to build construct a new road, a new Bushfield Drive. Um and the residents were rather disorganized in their efforts to try and do something about stopping the road. And this I suppose led most of us to the conclusion that organization was needed and is perhaps what led us to watershed association. Yeah, there was some movement prior to the highway uh on a small scale initiated from the soil and conservation uh district. I think I think the highways what decided people >> finally finally you know the highways uh brought everybody together to the point where they they decided all right let's move ahead let's let's actually form the organization >> when they move a stream such as they did our bushkill creek they completely changed the ecology uh to make it brief and yet give the long story uh it winds up that the rocks and everything where the minnows and insect life that trout live on and the trout breeding in are covered with silt by the highway work. So we must flush the stream to get rid of the silt. It has widened and and uh made the water rather shallow. This allows it to warm up entirely too far for the good trout life. So this is another reason for the new stream bed. It'll narrow it down, speed it up, and it'll cut a new deeper channel which provides food and cover for the fish. Along with that, all of the vegetation is gone, which is where the insects live and the shade for the water. So, we've got quite a job ahead of us. The Department of Highways is deeply concerned about any environmental disruption caused by its activities. They are supplying the manpower and the materials needed to implement the restoration programs outlined by the Bushkill Wershed Association. Watershed Association's work The highway is here. So, we have to do with the highway what we can. There are several places where the highway can be improved. And this is what is in the works right now with the restoration committee as far as putting in uh gabians so that they will in time be able to restore the creek to much of its original beauty. If nothing is done now, it can't be restored. >> No major American river is clean anymore. >> Many people are concerned about the environment. The environment is where people live >> and a damaged environment results in damaged lives. The environmental abuses of the past and of the present are as obvious as they are devastating. But the scope of these abuses is such that there are simply not enough personnel at the federal level or at the state level to take the widespread action needed. It takes local people working together. It takes local people working together to put existing state agencies and laws in touch with existing local problems. That's what a watershed association does. And that's why watershed associations work. >> We have uh technical people, college professors, uh private businessmen, uh engineers, uh just housewives, uh fellows from practically every walk of life have have joined. Well, this cross-section of interests we think is very necessary as part of a watershed association because it brings to us the thinking of each particular interest whether it's a farmer, an industrialist, a housewife or a sportsman. And this cross-section helps us to form the policies we need to work on all the resources and to work with all the people. >> We know where our problems are. We know the people. We're we are not outsiders coming in and telling the people of our area what to do. We're asking them to help uh help them actually help themselves. On a waterershed, you're considering every aspect of the stream, the land around it, the uh cities and the countryside, all all at the same time. Not only the main bottom part where the water runs, but also the every part of the land around it. >> Education is really the only tool that a watershed association has. We don't pass laws or issue directives, but simply by getting information and encouraging people to act, we think we can get the job done. >> We have first embarked usually on an educational program. and we do a lot of research and find out as much about this pro and con of any problem as we possibly can pass this all on to the public and then ask for their support and usually usually it comes quicker that way when they know what they're talking about. >> We work with the state by getting the people to use the agencies it has available and trying to encourage people to follow the regulations that are here and in some cases encouraging new regulations to be formed. when you get a a large number of people banded together with a desire to do a job and go to these various state agencies uh for help uh you get uh recognition much sooner. >> I think we have the uh state aware that there are citizens in this area who are watching every move they make and uh also knowing that there are people interested in what they are doing. Actually, a lot has been accomplished in these first 25 years. A lot more will have to be accomplished in the next 25. But we think people have learned a whole lot about working together. There's much better coordination now between towns and townships and governmental agencies. We do have long range plans which we think will provide for orderly development of much of the valley. And above all, I think we have helped to to develop a state of mind in which people are saying we must do something to take care of our resources if this valley is going to be liveable in the years ahead. So, frankly, we're optimistic about the future. Oo. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Oo. Heat.