On October 5, the Lancaster County Community Foundation announced more than $100,000 in Lancaster Clean Water Fund Grants to support nine water quality improvement projects.

The Lancaster Clean Water Fund is a funding source for clean water projects in Lancaster County, open to nonprofits and municipalities.

The Lancaster Clean Water Fund provides a unique opportunity to work with landowners, leaders, and communities across the county on education, restoration, and protection projects to improve water quality.

The projects receiving grants include--

-- Conestoga River Club - $20,000: The Conestoga River Club will enhance the effectiveness and organization of large-scale clean up efforts by providing protective wear, safety gear, tools, transportation, and other essential equipment and education to its growing group of volunteers. To fulfill its mission of educational outreach, funding will also support assembling an advisory team of professional educators, youth advocates, and youth program directors to guide the development of educational programming.

-- Interfaith Partners For The Chesapeake - $14,985: The Lancaster One Water Partnership is a regional hub of faith-based action to address highly fragmented non-source pollution challenges and opportunities. By working with communities of faith, we reach non-traditional partners who are private landowners, many of which generate stormwater pollution or who offer opportunities for significantly increased tree canopy, aligning with the goals of Lancaster’s Countywide Action Plan.

-- Lancaster Conservancy - $15,000: Water quality education and training starts in people’s yards. This project will serve as a pilot to educate community members about the use of native plants and water quality landscaping practices. While the Lancaster Conservancy’s work of land protection does a lot to protect water quality, we need community members to implement conservation landscaping. This program will empower community members to implement runoff controlling native habitat plantings in their neighborhoods.

-- Lancaster Science Factory - $6,000: Water quality education and training starts in people’s yards. This project will serve as a pilot to educate community members about the use of native plants and water quality landscaping practices. While the Lancaster Conservancy’s work of land protection does a lot to protect water quality, we need community members to implement conservation landscaping. This program will empower community members to implement runoff controlling native habitat plantings in their neighborhoods.

-- Londonderry Township - $2,000: Londonderry Township plans to host its first water quality-focused Conewago Darter 5K Race & Community Field Day. The race will begin at Old Trolley Line Park in Mount Joy and end at the Route 230 trailhead, where a community field day will be set up. The 5k will be a fundraiser for Tri-County Conewago Creek Association and Londonderry Township’s future clean water projects. The community field day will be an educational event for local residents to engage with conservationists and take a tour of a restoration project.

-- River Steward's Collaborative - $7,500: Lancaster County has the second highest population of Plain Sect/Amish in the United States. River Stewards Collaborative, with support from experts at LandStudies, the Lancaster Farmland Trust, and Mr. Paul Fisher, an “Amish Liaison,” will develop handouts and presentations, and lead a series of engagement meetings with Plain Sect landowners in the county, to educate them on the impacts farming practices can have on the local and Chesapeake watersheds.

-- Spanish American Civic Association - $15,000: This project will motivate and inform residents and visitors in Southeast Lancaster about their relationship with waterways, specifically the underlying history of people and events. SACA will produce three educational programs for WLCH radio aired during Education Through  Partnering, and install six historical markers, each with a QR code linked to SACA’s web site for obtaining in-depth information. Markers will be installed in coordination with the City’s 2023 South Duke Streetscape Project that funds lighting, crosswalks, sidewalks, trees, bike racks, benches, and bus shelters.

-- Chiques Creek Watershed Alliance - $7,500: This project will plant and establish three acres of wildflower and grass meadow along Dellinger Run in the Chiques Creek watershed. The meadow will be planted within an existing young forested riparian buffer and along a completed stream restoration project. After 4 years of maintaining the project, the landowner is looking for opportunities to reduce routine maintenance long-term.

-- Mount Joy Borough - $20,000: Mount Joy Borough will construct a 30-foot wide retrofitted bioswale for the Reserves at Union School community. The Borough will engage in a partnership with the development’s Homeowners Association for long-term maintenance and upkeep. The project is based upon the design of student intern, Leslie Hendricks, and includes removing current growth and sentiment from the swale and replacing with various layers of a designed plant community, utilizing drought, wet and salt tolerant plants and vegetation.

Click Here for the complete announcement.

To learn more about cleaning up Lancaster County’s streams, visit the Lancaster Clean Water Partners website.

[How Clean Is Your Stream?

[Check DEP’s 2022 Water Quality Report to find out how clean streams are near you].

Related Articles:

-- Chesapeake Bay Foundation 2022 State Of The Chesapeake Blueprint Report Finds Restoration Efforts Are Off Track  [PaEN]

-- DEP Provides PA Chesapeake Bay Watershed Healthy Waters Partnership Update  [PaEN]

-- EPA: Most States, Including Pennsylvania, Did Not Meet 2-Year Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Milestones [PaEN]

-- Register Now For NFWF Virtual Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Networking Forum & Listening Sessions Starting Nov. 8  [PaEN]

-- Bay Journal: Chesapeake Bay States To Get Millions For Climate-Smart Farm Practices -- By Ad Crable, Chesapeake Bay Journal  [PaEN]

-- Land Trust Alliance Magazine Highlights Efforts Along PA's Kittatinny Ridge To Document The Economic Benefits Of Land Conservation - By Marina Shauffler [PaEN]

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Newsletter Features Eels In Classroom; Fish Detectives; 2nd Round Consumptive Use Grants Coming; AMD Cleanup; More  [PaEN]

[Posted: October 6, 2022]

10/10/2022