Harry Campbell, Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Pennsylvania Monday provided an update on how efforts to clean up the Bay Watershed in Pennsylvania are progressing.  Here’s just some of what he had to say--

The late-spring sun warming a slight, following breeze, and an ambling current made for an ideal setting for a recent paddle down the mighty Susquehanna River.

Members of the media went along with us on a canoe trip, as did state Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Cindy Adams Dunn and Fish & Boat Executive Director John Arway.

We wanted reporters and videographers to experience the Susquehanna for themselves, and hopefully come to better understand the river's plight, the need for it to be declared as impaired, and CBF's work in reducing pollution of roughly 19,000 miles of Pennsylvania's rivers and streams.

In his account of the day, Lebanon Daily News writer Tyler Frantz painted a picture with words of a river "beautiful and vibrant with life," but that what lies beneath the surface "forebodes a perilous future." Click Here to read his article.

Those who care about the river and the health of all Pennsylvania waters, anxiously await the Draft Integrated Water Quality Report from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which we hope, includes a recommendation that the Susquehanna be declared as an impaired waterway.  Click Here to watch a video of John Arway to protect fish in the river.

Those with intimate knowledge of the river, say it is past time that the Susquehanna be declared impaired, as fishing guide Rod Bates shared with us recently.

Just as Pennsylvania has "rebooted" its clean water effort to try to meet its Clean Water Blueprint goals, it needs to take decisive action to restore and protect the mighty Susquehanna by declaring it as impaired.

Please add your voice to the thousands who want to see the Susquehanna declared impaired. Sign your name to a petition urging Governor Tom Wolf and the DEP to do so.

For healthy Pennsylvania rivers and streams,

Harry Campbell

Pennsylvania Executive Director

Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA

How Clean Is My Stream?

For more information and find out how clean streams are in your county, visit CBF-PA’s Clean Water Counts In Pennsylvania webpage.

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the CBF-PA webpage.  Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column).  Click Here for a copy of CBF-PA’s most recent newsletter.

NewsClips:

Outdoors Notebook: Susquehanna River Cleanup Stalled

Reading Students Raise Money For Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Latest From The Chesapeake Bay Journal

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Related Stories:

CBF-PA: PA State Budget Lacks Funding to Reach Clean Water Goals

CBF-PA: More Than Half Of Pennsylvania Has Now Joined Clean Water Counts

Op-Ed: PA In The Balance, Stakeholders Can Be Part Of The Clean Water Solution

7/25/2016