The Pfizer Inc Lititz plant announced this week at a dedication ceremony that the New Street Ecological Park restoration project is officially complete.

The project was part of a pilot program that aims to improve the environmental quality of the Conestoga River watershed in Lancaster County through voluntary pollution credit trading.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) has been participating in the groundbreaking Conestoga River Nutrient Trading Pilot Project with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Conservation Fund, Environmental Defense, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, LandStudies Inc., and Pennsylvania State University.

Recognizing the significant problem to Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams caused by runoff from farms, storm water and dirt and gravel roads (runoff makes up more than 88 percent of the nutrient load in our waterways), PEC and partners are working to encourage farmers and other landowners to combat these problems through nutrient trading, a relatively new approach.

Pfizer Inc Lititz took part in the pilot by funding the $80,000 New Street Park restoration project, which was endorsed by the Council of Environmental Quality (a watch group established within the Executive Office of the President of the United States as part of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969).

The portion of the Santo Domingo Creek channel that runs through New Street Park was reshaped to return it to its historic elevation, and silt that built up in and around the stream after early residents dammed and straightened it was removed. This will both mitigate flooding and reduce sediment that washes downstream into the Conestoga and eventually, into the Chesapeake Bay.

For its contribution, Pfizer will receive pollutant reduction credits, which it can retire or trade to other dischargers, such as publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) or farmers, to offset nutrient loads in the Conestoga watershed.

“Pfizer is proud to fund the pilot restoration project,” said Dave Burton, Site Leader of Pfizer Inc at Lititz. “As corporate citizens in the local community, we felt a responsibility to help maintain the creek to manage the flooding in the area.”

The Council is working to set up more nutrient trades in the Conestoga watershed and hopes that the New Street Ecological Park restoration will serve an example for future efforts to emulate.

“Pfizer was already a leader in community stewardship. Today they have added to their outstanding reputation by leading a new model of water quality improvement,” said PEC President Andrew McElwaine. “If the trading pilot is successful it will become a model for Pennsylvania and for other states. This is a promising way to reduce pollution from the agricultural sector.”

10/15/2004