Schuylkill Action Network Honors Local MVPs-- Most Valuable Partners

The Schuylkill Action Network, a group of over 100 member-organizations and individuals, has awarded five recipients with MVP, or Most Valuable Partner Awards, for their work in carrying out restoration and enhancement projects that reduce water pollution in the Schuylkill River watershed of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Those honored include:

Brian Rich, owner of Reading Anthracite Company in Pottsville, was honored for his help in reducing water pollution originating from abandoned mines. Rich granted property easements that now allow environmental professionals to access, study and treat polluted, mineral-laden water before it can wash into the Schuylkill River.

Mark Lesherof Lesher Farms was recognized for his help in reducing pollutants flowing from farm fields and livestock paddocks. Lesher implemented formal conservation and grazing plans on his farm that include fencing, gutters, and other enhancements. These, in turn, have reduced the flow of barnyard runoff into a nearby wetland during wet-weather events.

Jim Coffey, an environmental science teacher at Upper Perkiomen High School, was honored for providing over 300 students with outdoor learning experiences at Green Lane Reservoir. Coffey’s students learned the value of streamside, riparian buffers, and they improved water quality by installing over 2,000 plants and trees around this large source of drinking water. These plants will filter pollutants collected by rainwater as it travels downhill to a local creek.

The Norristown Area School District was recognized for reducing the quantity of rainwater that flows across 10 acres of parking lots on its way into Stony Creek, near Norristown Area High School and Whitehall Elementary School. Much of this contaminated water is now being captured and cleaned by two newly enhanced stormwater detention basins, as well as approximately 200 trees and shrubs planted by students. Projects like these are designed to reduce both the magnitude and frequency of local flash floods.

The Spring-Ford School District was honored for its assistance in improving a stormwater detention basin, which captures and filters polluted water draining from 65 acres of parking lots and athletic fields before it can enter the Mingo Creek and later, the Schuylkill River. Students played a critical role by planting hundreds of trees and shrubs, and monitoring water quality at the site over time.

“Partnerships like these and others are invaluable to the Schuylkill Action Network as it continues to work toward reducing water pollution in the Schuylkill River and its tributaries,” said Jennifer Adkins, executive director of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. “Water does not respect political boundaries, so we must all come together if we are to manage it successfully.”

Each of the 40 projects eligible for an MVP award was funded, at least in part, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which provided the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary with a $1.15 million Targeted Watershed Initiative Grant in 2004 for water quality improvement projects identified by the Philadelphia Water Department.

The goal of each project was to help protect the environmental health of the Schuylkill River watershed, a major source of drinking water for the City of Philadelphia and many surrounding communities.

For more information, visit the Schuylkill Action Network website.