The Lower Susquehanna River Should Be on Pennsylvania’s 303(d) Impaired Waters List
Yesterday Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper submitted these comments to Pennsylvania’s Dept. of Environmental Protection concerning its draft 2012 Integrated Water Resources Report. Pennsylvania created this list and solicited comments pursuant to their duty to periodically survey their waterways, assess their health, and whether they are meeting their designated uses and water quality criteria.
The gist of our comment letter is this: we appear to be steadily losing an important economic, recreational, and ecological resource in PA. The health of the Susquehanna’s smallmouth bass fishery is seriously threatened, and the River continues to suffer from sources of pollution. The Clean Water Act prescribes exactly what needs to happen when a waterway is diminished in its ability to provide its designated uses. That prescription is to list the waterway as impaired, then to determine the sources of impairment, and then to draft a plan for reducing the pollutants and conditions that have been determined to be the cause of impairment.
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