Watershed Assessment of the Lower Crum Creek: Decision Support for a Community-Based Partnership
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Watershed Assessment of the Lower Crum Creek: Decision Support for a Community-Based Partnership Final Report: Nonpoint Source Management and Watershed Restoration and Assistance Program Project October 31, 2001 Arthur E. McGarity Department of Engineering Swarthmore College Swarthmore Pennsylvania Project Sponsor: Swarthmore College Other Sponsors: Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association Swarthmore Borough Environmental Advisory Council Nether Providence Township Environmental Advisory Council Springfield Township Environmental Advisory Council Funding Sponsor This project was funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Section 319 Program administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Nonpoint Source Management Program, Project Number ME# 359457. Acknowledgements The following report was written primarily by the Project Director, Arthur E. McGarity, with assistance in preparation and writing from the project staff, listed below. 1. Frank Dowman, summer Laboratory Manager at Swarthmore College and science teacher, Sun Valley High School 2. Kristin Chadderton, summer Data Manager, GIS Analyst, and engineering graduate of Swarthmore College, class of 2001 3. Marc Jeuland, summer QA/QC Program Developer and engineering honors graduate of Swarthmore College, class of 2001 4. Michelle Mizumori, summer Watershed Modeler and engineering graduate of Swarthmore College, class of 2001 5. Clara Fuchsman, summer Metals Analyst and biochemistry honors graduate of Swarthmore College, class of 2001 6. Elaine Lennox, summer Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research participant and science teacher, Ridley High School 7. Emily Ford, summer HHMI research participant, Strath Haven High School 8. Ericka Beverly, summer HHMI research participant, Chester Academy 9. Andrew Combs, summer HHMI research participant, Strath Haven High School 10. Chris Fabiano, summer HHMI research participant, Ridley High School 11. Part-time monitoring and work crew: Nick Childers, Gordon Davis, Will Eckenhoff, Bill Gross, Richard Hall, Mike McGarity, Owen McGarity, Sam McGarity, Seth Miran This project was funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Section 319 Program administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Nonpoint Source Management Program, ME# 359457. Watershed Assessment of Crum Creek: Decision Support for a Community-Based Partnership Final Report October 31, 2001 Executive Summary This report presents results from a two-year watershed assessment study of conservation and restoration options for the lower reaches of the Crum Creek watershed, located in the heavily developed western suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This stream is stressed in its lower reaches by wet-weather flows of nutrient rich and sediment-laden stormwater, bank erosion, and leaks from sanitary sewer systems, and is listed on the USEPA.’s 303(d) list of impaired waterways. The assessment project has made significant progress in five areas: (1) watershed partnership development and growth, (2) public awareness of problems in the watershed and potential solutions through two conference/workshops, (3) growing involvement of Swarthmore College in local watershed studies and protection activities, (4) monitoring of water quality with database development, and (5) developing proposals and preliminary designs for implementation projects that will begin the process of watershed restoration. Results in each of these areas are reported in separate sections of this report. Especially significant are results relating to the successful creation of a watershed-wide partnership of municipalities, businesses, and institutions in the Crum Creek watershed which now includes representatives from virtually all of the municipalities in the watershed, from the headwaters in Chester County and through the middle and lower sections in Delaware County to the confluence with the Delaware River. The Crum Creek Watershed Partnership (CCWP) contributed to the development of a successful proposal to Pennsylvania’s Growing Greener program to perform assessment of the upper reaches of the watershed. CCWP has also submitted a proposal to the Growing Greener program to begin high priority restoration projects in the lower watershed. Selection of restoration projects was assisted by the monitoring and modeling activities conducted at Swarthmore College by the faculty and students involved in the project which helped to identify “hot spots” requiring immediate corrective action by municipalities and “restoration opportunities” that generated proposals for implementation of best management practices (BMP’s). The project has successfully integrated watershed assessment and partnership building activities into the environmental studies and engineering curricula at the College. Students in three different courses participated in the project over two academic years. Senior engineering design students developed preliminary designs for BMP projects and constructed an experimental constructed wetland facility for treating a portion of the College’s stormwater runoff flow. The main recommendations of this project are (1) that efforts be continued in support of the partnership approach to protection and restoration of the watershed, (2) that the proposed restoration projects be funded and implemented, (3) that the performance of the projects be monitored for an extended period after completion, and (4) that the methodology developed for this project be used throughout the Crum Creek watershed to assess potential sites for restoration and protection projects and to work through the Crum Creek Watershed Partnership to prioritize projects and to develop feasible and economical implementation plans. 1. Background The Crum Creek watershed is located in the heavily developed suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The watershed’s Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) is 2040202. The lower reaches of the stream appear in the Section 303 listing of impaired waterways based on data from the Surface Water Monitoring Program. The watershed drains an area of about 40 square miles in the southern edge of the Piedmont region, flowing from north to south through a ridge-valley system that merges at its southern end with the Atlantic coastal plain and the Delaware River estuary. The creek’s headwaters are just south of the east-west “mainline” ridge where U.S. Highway 30 emerges from Philadelphia. Its middle reaches are crossed by another major east-west commuter highway, Pennsylvania Route 3. South of Route 3, the creek forms Springton Lake, a storage reservoir owned by the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company (PSWC), which is an investor owned water utility serving most of Philadelphia’s northern and western suburbs. The PSWC controls the flow downstream of the reservoir so as to keep its intake pond full. The intake supplies a filtration plant that purifies the water for distribution to residences and businesses in the area. During low-flow periods, the PSWC has the legal right to take the entire flow of the stream. Figure A-1, in Appendix A, shows a map of the entire Crum Creek watershed. The creek and its major tributaries are shown. Sections that have been designated "attained use" are shown in blue, indicating that water quality requirements are currently satisfied for the designated uses of those sections. Sections that have been designated "impaired" are shown in red, indicating that some kind of corrective measure will be necessary to restore these sections in order to attain federal and state water quality goals. Only a small section of the stream in the tidal zone at Eddystone Borough is still unassessed. U.S. Highway 1 crosses the stream just above the water supply intake pond and Interstate Highway 476 (I-476) passes just to the east of the pond. I-476 was constructed in the late 1980’s on a controversial route (called the “Blue Route”) that involves multiple crossings of the stream. The map shows these crossings, as well as three major intersections that I-476 makes with other highways: with U.S. 1 just above the intake pond, with Baltimore Pike near the center of the map, and with Interstate Highway 95, at the bottom center of the photo. I-476 connects I-95 with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and it is heavily used for commuter traffic and interstate travel and commerce since it serves as the primary bypass route to the west of Philadelphia. Large single-family homes and commercial establishments near the highways characterize development in the upper reaches of the watershed. There is some commercial agriculture in this area. The lower reaches are more densely settled in the communities of Springfield, Nether Providence, Swarthmore, and Ridley. There is intense pressure to develop for residential and commercial use the remaining wooded areas and green space over the entire the watershed. The stream is particularly stressed in the lower reaches by wet-weather flows of sediment-laden stormwater, bank erosion, and sanitary sewer leaks. The stream is also stressed during dry weather because of withdrawals from the stream at the PSWC intake pond that are necessary to meet the demands for water in the region. The problems on the Crum Creek watershed are typical of many watersheds in urban/suburban regions. Thus, the results of this project and the successful creation of a watershed-wide partnership for restoration and protection of the watershed can serve as an example for similarly stressed watersheds in other urban areas in the Commonwealth and around