Roadside Guide to Clean Water

Introduction

Water is an abundant resource in Pennsylvania. There are nearly 86,000 miles of rivers and streams and thousands of lakes, ponds, and wetlands. We have lots of water for drinking, recreation, agriculture, and industry. However, over a third of those lakes and a fifth of those streams are classified as impaired. They are unable to support aquatic life or be used for recreation, fish consumption, or drinking water.

The biggest source of water pollution in Pennsylvania is stormwater runoff. It is difficult for rainwater and melting snow to soak into the ground due to all the developed surfaces we have created. This causes excess stormwater to run downhill and into our streams, lakes, and rivers. Runoff water doesn't travel alone. It picks up pollutants like salt, soil, manure, and chemicals. Those pollutants come from rural, urban, and suburban places alike—parking lots, construction sites, farms, lawns, or any other land the water flows over. Contaminated water harms aquatic habitat, takes away opportunities for fishing and boating, creates hazards to human health, and makes water more difficult and expensive to treat and use.

Your neighbors and your community may already be taking big steps to help reduce water pollution. Farmers, townships and cities, businesses, and homeowners are using practices on their land to help protect our waterways. Many of these practices may look unfamiliar and go unnoticed. Recognizing what to look for is a first step to appreciating the good work being done for water all around you.

In this guide, you will discover some of the most popular practices being used in urban, suburban, and rural areas. By noticing and appreciating the progress being made, we can all be part of protecting our local water.

Using This Guide

This guide includes some of the most popular best management practices for water quality. Pictures of each practice from different perspectives and in different settings will help you narrow it down. But every site is unique and what you find in your community may look different from what you see here.

The Roadside Guide to Clean Water includes information on:

• Cover Crops
• Grassed Waterways
• Manure Storage and Application
• Native Meadows
• Porous and Permeable Paving Materials
• Proper Pet Waste Disposal
• Rain Gardens
• Riparian Buffers
• Sediment Barriers
• Stormwater Basins
• Streambank and Floodplain Restoration
• Urban and Suburban Trees
• Vegetated Swales

To help you navigate, tips include where you might find these practices in urban (cities or other highly populated) areas, suburban (suburban or residential) areas, or rural (farms and other rural) areas. Tips are also included on how these practices benefit your community. They include:

• Groundwater: Recharges groundwater
• Stormwater: Reduces stormwater runoff
• Pollution: Reduces pollution
• Flooding: Mitigates flooding
• Climate Change: Promotes climate change resiliency
• Habitat: Provides wildlife habitat
• Savings: Provides cost savings
• Landscape: Beautifies the landscape

The development of the Roadside Guide to Clean Water was supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection - Environmental Education Grants Program