Environmental Benefits of Water Quality

Summary of the Department of Environmental Protection's program to plug abandoned oil and gas wells. It is estimated that as many as 760,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania, and over 500,000 remain unaccounted for.

Pennsylvania’s waterways face numerous threats, including excess nutrient loading, sedimentation, decreased flow, chemical pollutants, invasive species, access, and recreational conflict. In the last decade, there was a rapid expansion of community watershed organizations (CWOs) aimed at solving local watershed issues across the commonwealth and the nation. The development of local, volunteer-led watershed organizations seems to represent a paradigm shift to a community-based approach for generating long-term solutions to local watershed problems.

This publication provides an overview of the benefits of buffer areas and then continues with a practical step-by-step planning guide. It also includes several case studies of successful streamside buffer projects

Long regarded as wastelands, wetlands are now recognized as important features in the landscape that provide numerous beneficial services for people and for fish and wildlife. Some of these services, or functions, include protecting and improving water quality, providing fish and wildlife habitats, storing floodwaters, and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods. These beneficial services, considered valuable to societies worldwide, are the result of the inherent and unique natural characteristics of wetlands.

This guide is intended to encourage partnerships between park agencies and stormwater agencies aimed at promoting the use of green infrastructure on park lands. The guide offers information on why partnerships between stormwater managers and parks managers can be beneficial and how you can create such partnerships. The guide presents an overview of green infrastructure and describes practices that can be used to manage stormwater in parks. In addition, you will find information on factors that influence the selection of appropriate green infrastructure practices, such as maintenance requirements.

Presentation regarding land and water resource protection

The occurrence of hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, is increasing in coastal waters worldwide and represents a significant threat to the health and economy of our Nation’s coasts and Great Lakes. This report discusses the causes and impacts of hypoxia, means of addressing the problem, and federal research on the issue.

Timber harvesting, increases in agricultural and urban lands, and the lack of protective environmental practices have led to excess sediment and nutrients washed into the Bay. When sediment, which is composed of loose particles of clay, silt, and sand, becomes suspended, it makes the water cloudy and reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches the submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) that provides habitat and stability to the bay. The reduction in water clarity in the Bay has lead to a drastic decline in SAV over the past 30 years and this coupled with poor water quality, leaves the Chesapeake Bay classified as an “impaired water body”.

Extensive scientific research documents that vegetated strips of land along waterways provide extensive water quality and other environmental and economic benefits.