Lycoming County's initiative to monitor a small watershed to see how conservation practices impact water quality is about to kick into high gear.
On Tuesday during a commissioners work session, county Environmental Planner Megan Lehman asked the commissioners to consider during their Thursday meeting a professional services agreement with the Lycoming College Clean Water Institute.
The agreement calls for the institute to provide consulting and monitoring services to show how stream bank fencing improves the water quality on an unnamed tributary of White Deer Hole Creek.
The creek originates in Crawford Township in Clinton County, traverses Limestone and Washington townships in the southern section of Lycoming County and enters the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in Union County.
According to Lehman, the institute will be paid about $9,800 for the work.
The agreement is retroactive to the beginning of the year to cover services already provided by the institute, Lehman said.
The institute helped identify the watershed where the conservation practices will be implemented, established monitoring protocol and will monitor the stream, she said.
The stream will be monitored both before and after the fencing is installed.
The tributary "is small enough to get measurable, significant changes in water quality during the implementation of agriculture best management practices," she said.
Four farmers with property bordering the tributary have agreed to participate in the program.
Lehman said the goal is to begin monitoring the stream by the first week of August.
In other business, the commissioners will consider receipt of a nearly $46,000 state Hazardous Materials Response Fund grant.
According to Ted Kriner, county chief emergency preparedness planner, the grant, which is provided by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, is the largest of its kind ever received by the county.
The grant must be used for hazardous materials-related programs, Kriner said.
The commissioners are expected to adopt a resolution to appoint the county Planning Commission the appeals board to resolve issues related to stormwater.
William Kelly, deputy director of the commission, said creating an appeals board is important because local municipalities have adopted or soon will be adopting a stormwater ordinance provided them by the county.
The commission is a "good fit," he said, because its staff helped develop the ordinance.
