There are three cleanups scheduled for the upcoming months.  If you know of others, please send info to lowsusriver@hotmail.com.

Saturday, May 10 • 8 am - 4 pm  • Saginaw, York County
Some neighbors and I are organizing a river clean up along the Susquehanna. We are meeting at the parking area on the Saginaw side of Gut Road just under the railroad bridge (Jen's town). If you do not know where this is, please email or call for better directions. Saginaw is just outside Mount Wolf, York County.

A dumpster, trash bags, gloves and lunch will be provided by a grant through the Watershed Alliance of York (WAY). All ages are welcome. Come all day, or just for a couple hours. Tell all of your friends!

Email friscojen@gmail.com or call 717-332-8643 if you can make it, or just show up!

Saturday, June 7 • Lower Susquehanna River Island Cleanup • York/Lancaster
Come join Shank's Mare Outfitters, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, York County Conservation Alliance & Watershed Alliance of York for a cleanup of islands at Long Level, just south of Wrightsville. Officially the islands are in Lancaster, but we will be boating out from Shank’s Mare Outfitters, on Long Level Road in York. More info to come.

Saturday & Sunday, June 21 & 22 • 9 AM - 5 PM • Codorus Creek Cleanup • City of York
Celebrate the Solstice and join the Codorus Creek Improvement Partnership, Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna, and the Watershed Alliance of York in the 7th Annual Codorus Cleanup. Each year CCIP picks a different section of the Codorus to clean up, and this year we are back to the city. In 2002 volunteers removed over 50 tons of debris during a 10-day cleanup in this area. Fortunately, it has not gotten nearly as bad as it was back then, but we still have some work to do.

P.S. There will be Smallmouth fishing after the cleanup. Last week I caught a 16 inch smallie and a 12 incher that was 3 inches wide with eggs. I also had one that was bigger, but it leaped out of the water, and threw off the hook… really! Eugene Kraybill was there to see it.

Thanks again for everyone’s support during my “down time” with the broken leg. Hope to see you all out on the river soon!

Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper® Joins in Filing Lawsuit Against MD Department of Agriculture for Transparency to Nutrient Management Plans

“These plans are available for review in Pennsylvania and there is no reason that factory farms in Maryland cannot share their pollution control plans with concerned citizens,” said Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper® Michael Helfrich. Read the full HometownAnnapolis.com article here. Also view the Waterkeeper press release (PDF) about the lawsuit.

Conowingo Dam Sediment Sign-On Letter

We've been working with citizens from Harford and Cecil Counties, and throughout the Bay watershed to have the Conowingo Dam sediment issues addressed. To this end, Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna drafted a letter, got other groups to sign on, and got it to the Governors in time for their Chesapeake Executive Council annual meeting. After last week's meeting, Governor Rendell of PA said it would be one of his, and the Chesapeake Executive Council's priorities. Grassroots work by MD and PA residents got this onto the Council's agenda, and you are responsible for getting this important issue back on the radar. Thanks to everyone who signed on, and its not too late to help. We still need to gain more support from the state legislators, so we'll keep adding signatures and using this letter to gain support. Here's a link to the letter that you or your group can sign:
Conowingo Sediment Sign-On Letter

"The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard

Please follow the link below to view the "The Story of Stuff", a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever – the electronics, toys, clothes, and other material goods that we in the United States use to express the meaning of the holidays and, at other times of the year, our very own personal value.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Sediments and the Conowingo Dam

In September, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper visited two U.S. Congressmen and staffers from ten other Congressmen and all four MD and PA Senators on Capitol Hill to discuss the Conowingo Sediment threat. Not addressing these sediments could lead to a catastrophic scouring of tens of millions of tons of sediment and nutrients and/or an annual increase of up to 250% in sediments from the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake. Both of these results could devastate the Chesapeake Bay and wipe out years worth of efforts to restore the bay. These effects have been documented by the agencies concerned with improving the bay, but nothing more has been done since 2001 due to lack of funding.

On November 4th, Congressmen Gilchrest and Platts began talks with SRBC, EPA, the Chesapeake Bay Program, and the Northeast Midwest Institute to determine how we can address this single biggest threat to the Chesapeake Bay. These same agencies have encouraged SOLS to continue our leadership on this issue, and to increase our public education efforts. To this end, we've created a two-page summary to be shared with politicians and other members of the environmental community or academia, and a condensed single page fact sheet for the public. We hope to educate the public and our decision makers on this dangerous situation on the Lower Susquehanna, a situation that some have compared to the failure of government to act on the New Orleans levees before Katrina.

Please download and share this information on "Sediments and the Conowingo Dam : The Biggest Single Threat to the Chesapeake Bay" with anyone interested, particularly your state elected officials.

Conowingo Sediment Scientific Overview
Conowingo Sediment Public Overview

Mud in the Run: Failures at Construction Sites

Runoff from Factory Farms Makes News

• Read the New York Times Editorial article about antibiotic runoff here.
• Also, be sure to watch Sierra Club's animated video about factory farming practices and take action to stop the Tyson Dirty Water Bailout Bill!

9.12.07 : Comments Delivered to the DEP

• Read the comments delivered to the DEP about American Ash's Permit Renewal
• Read the petition for Federal Investigation by the US Department of Health & Human Services

Artist Steve Rudy Contributes to Our Cause

Harrisburg artist Steve Rudy has spent 30 years fishing for smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, PA. When various pollution sources caused a massive fish kill in 2005, he spent about 100 hours painting the acrylic/watercolor "Clarks Ferry Smallmouth" to raise awareness of the Susquehanna's rich angling heritage. "A lot of people don't realize what we stand to lose if we don't get this river cleaned up," Rudy says. He is donating 50% of the $75 purchase price of each print to the non-profit Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper®. Prints are available from Rudy (rudysjac@aol.com) and on display at Bob Clouser's fly shop (717-944-6541).