McKean County Conservation District - Water Resources

Contact:  Heather McKean – 814-887-4003 - Click here to email

Watershed Management Program

The District’s Watershed Specialist provides technical information and assistance, and organizational support for efforts designed to improve the quality and quantity of the Commonwealth’s surface and groundwater resources.  The scope of watershed management includes assessment, procurement of funding, technical assistance, and the creation, implementation, and coordination of work plans and strategies to restore and protect groundwater and surface water resources.  The Watershed Specialist is a resource to both the public and private sectors and is under the direct supervision and is accountable to the Conservation District Board of Directors.

Programs:
- Watershed Planning
- Watershed Restoration
- Watershed Protection and Stewardship
- Watershed Education and Outreach

A watershed is an area of land over and through which water flows to the lowest point - a stream, river, wetland, lake, or ocean. Watersheds catch rain or snow melt and funnel water into flows across or under the landscape. They come in many different shapes and sizes. Watersheds can be hilly, mountainous, or nearly flat and can be comprised of many land uses including forests, farms, towns and cities.

Why are watersheds important?
We live, play, and raise our children in watersheds. Our drinking water comes from watersheds. Our watersheds provide resources for the economy, recreation, and wildlife. Everything that we do on the land is within a watershed.

What is your watershed address?
No matter where we are, we are always in a watershed.  Look at the following map of McKean County and determine your watershed address.  A watershed address is the name of the watershed in which you live. 

Watershed Protection:

Protecting our watersheds means clean water in our streams. Clean water in our streams means healthy drinking water in our homes, safe water activities, such as swimming and boating, in our backyards, and abundant wildlife and natural resources in and around our aquatic environments. Clean water is essential for life. Threats to our clean water do not follow political boundaries, but occur within watersheds.

Pollution

There are two types of water resource pollution, Point Source and Nonpoint Source.

Point Source Pollution is a direct discharge into a river, stream, lake or pond. Examples of Point Source pollution include a sewage treatment plant or an industrial wastewater discharge.

Point Source Pollution is regulated by state and federal agencies to minimize the probability that water resources will be negatively impacted. One of the requirements for projects proposing to discharge wastewater is to get a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Development sites proposing earth disturbance must also have an approved Erosion and Sediment Control plan.

Nonpoint Source Pollution is pollution that enters our streams, lakes and ground water from diffuse sources. An example would include stormwater runoff that can pick up sediments, nutrients, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, animal waste, petroleum, litter and all sorts of other things on its way to our waterways.

What Can You Do?

Everyone can help to minimize nonpoint source pollution. Just a few things you can do to protect water resources include the following:

• Learn About Your Watershed - Contact your local watershed group or County Watershed Specialist and find out about your watershed.
• Become Active in Your Watershed - Find a watershed organization in your community and volunteer to help. If there are no active groups, consider starting your own.
• Become a Volunteer Water Quality Monitor. Help collect water quality data and build stewardship for your local waterbody. 
• Organize or join in the cleanup of a stream, river, or wetland.
• Create a Wildlife Habitat in your Backyard.
• Maintain vegetated buffers along streams on your property and in your neighborhood. Forested buffers along our streams and other bodies of water reduce impacts caused by runoff flows, intercept sediments, take-up excess nutrients and other pollutants, moderate stream temperatures and increase wildlife habitat values.
• Preserve wetlands on your property and in your neighborhood. Wetlands have numerous water quality and quantity values when looked at from a watershed point of view. Wetlands store stormwater, slowly replenish groundwater aquifers and filter sediments and other pollutants. Wetlands also provide critical habitats to many of the regions rarest species of plants and animals.
• Manage stormwater runoff from your property. Direct runoff to a low point on your property and detain it in a grassy swale or rain garden. Direct rooftop runoff onto lawn areas, or rain gardens, not the driveway.
• Do not dispose of anything into curbside storm drains. Many times these drains lead directly to receiving streams. Even during dry weather the stuff you put down the drain will get into the stream the next time it rains.
• Help Increase Public Awareness in Your Watershed.
  

LINKS to Watershed Information:

PA Organization for Watersheds and Rivers

Growing Greener Grants             Program

• Information for private well/spring owners  www.mwon.cas.psu.edu
• Groundwater and Drinking Water Safety