For
Immediate Release
December
21, 2001
Unionville, Chester County—The
Red Clay and White Clay creeks watersheds in Chester County recently received an
additional $440,500 from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
to improve water quality in the area, announced Congressman Joe Pitts (R,
PA-16).
The
Chester County Conservation District received the funds for the 103,000-acre
watershed to purchase land rights for conservation easements to install forested
riparian buffers along streams and for the installation of voluntary
land-treatment conservation measures. Funding is through the USDA NRCS Watershed
Protection and Flood Prevention Program, commonly called PL-566.
The
watershed contains around 400 farms, including several mushroom farms.
NRCS and CCCD conservation professionals provide technical assistance to
farmers in designing ways to keep water clean and keep topsoil in place.
“The
technical and financial assistance benefit not only the farmer who receives the
cost-share to install the practice, but also those residents downstream who
don’t have to pay as much to have their drinking water treated,” said
Congressman Pitts. “I appreciate
the federal, state and local partnership at work here to protect and improve the
environment for all the citizens.”
Conservation practices
include gutter systems to keep clean water from running across barnyards and
composting areas, buffers to allow runoff to be absorbed by vegetation and keep
sediment out of streams, stream bank fencing to keep livestock out of streams,
and composting sites to contain the natural runoff of nutrients.
“These
programs do much to protect the natural resources of Pennsylvania and I’m
happy to support them,” said Pitts.
Conservation districts are
county units of state government with local volunteer members who determine the
natural resource priorities in the county.
NRCS is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture with a
responsibility to provide voluntary technical assistance to owners and managers
of private lands.
# # #
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