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Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Restoring Tributaries and Shoreline Areas While Managing Urban Runoff
Improves Harveys Lake
Wotprhnrlv Imnrnx/prl Nutrients in runoff from urban areas impaired Pennsylvania's
" 1""" ' " ' >'-' ' " Harveys Lake, prompting the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection (PADEP) to add it to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section
303(d) list of impaired waters in 1996. In Harveys Lake and two of its tributaries, project
partners stabilized degraded portions of shoreline and stream channels, managed urban
runoff and deployed floating wetland islands to reduce nutrient levels. Water quality improved
in Harveys Lake, allowing PADEP to remove it from the list of impaired waters in 2014.
Problem
Harveys Lake is a 256-hectare (632.8-acre) water-
body located northeast of Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne
County, Pennsylvania (Figure 1). Harveys Lake is
designated for cold-water fishery support. Runoff
from urban lands and erosion of stream banks
and shorelines delivered nutrients and sediment
to Harveys Lake. High nutrient levels in the lake
contributed to algal blooms.
A Phase I Diagnostic Feasibility Study conducted by
Coastal Environmental in 1994 identified Harveys
Lake as impaired due to large algal blooms. To
support its aquatic life designated use, the lake
must maintain at least mesotrophic conditions. As a
result, PADEP included the entire lake on the state's
CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1996
for not meeting the aquatic life designated use. The
causes of impairment were high nutrient loads from
lawn fertilizer use, mowing, pet waste and erosive
runoff, combined with a loss of riparian buffers,
and the introduction of alewife to the lake, which
consumed zooplankton that historically kept algae
levels in check.
PADEP developed a total maximum daily load
(TMDL) in 2002 to serve as a "pollution diet" for
the entire Harvey Lake watershed. The TMDL was
based on the total phosphorus (TP) Trophic State
Index (TSI). To determine a TSI for TP, grab samples
were taken through the seasons for TP and analyzed
using the Carlson's TSI formula, which estimates
algal biomass in relation to the TP concentrations
of the samples. A TSI value of 50 was used as a
reference to set the TMDL limits because it marks
Source: Stormwaer Implementation Plan for Harvey* Uke Watershed (Intp:/;www portal iUte.paus/porl^/se(ver.pt/d«ument/755224/harveyslakesipTijy09_pi)fl
Figure 1. The Harvey's Lake watershed (outlined in blue) is in
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
the breakpoint between eutrophic and mesotrophic
lake systems. At the time the TMDL was developed
(2002), Harvey Lake had a TSI of 53.7. To reach a TSI
of 50, the TMDL set limits for nutrient loads (i.e., TP)
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Figure 2. Watershed partners reduced the in-lake total
phosphorus of Harveys Lake by installing floating wetland
islands that absorb nutrients from the water.
to reduce the fuel source for algal blooms and bring
the lake back into a healthy mesotrophic state. To
meet the TMDL water quality goals, TP in the lake
needed to be reduced by 22 percent (230 pounds
per year).
In 2009 Princeton Hydro, LLC, developed a
stormwater implementation plan (SIP) for Harveys
Lake. Recommended practices included implement-
ing a number of structural urban runoff projects
throughout the watershed.
Project Highlights
From 2000 to 2014, state and local partners
cooperated to address the water quality prob-
lems identified in the TMDL and the SIP. First, the
partners designed and constructed two natural
stream channel projects restoring 500 linear feet of
tributaries and reducing the sediment and nutrient
loads entering the lake. Next, a series of 38 urban
runoff BMPs, including nutrient separating devices
and roadside infiltration, were installed in areas
immediately adjacent to the lake to further reduce
the loads of nutrients and other pollutants reach-
ing the lake. Finally, fourfloating wetland islands
were installed in the lake to assimilate and reduce
nutrients already in the lake (Figure 2). A floating
wetland island is a manmade raft of soil and native
plants that is anchored in place and sits on the
water's surface. Like a natural wetland, the plants
uptake nutrients from the surrounding water, while
bacteria associated with the wetlands also increase
denitrification.
1993 2000 2001 2003 2004 2006 2007 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Figure 3. Phosphorous TSI values for Harveys Lake from the
original Phase I Study (1993) as well as from various NPS (319)
Implementation Grants. Each TSI calculation is based on the
mean growing season concentration of total phosphorous. The
red line is the TSI value for total phosphorous under the TMDL.
Results
Restoration efforts helped reduce nutrient loads
to Harveys Lake by the estimated 22 percent
(230 pounds per year), meeting the reduction
goal called for in the TMDL. PADEP's Watershed
Support Section surveyed Harveys Lake in 2013
to determine its chemical and biological condi-
tion after BMPs were implemented. Data showed
a TSI value of 44.2, indicating the lake had been
remediated from a eutrophic to a mesotrophic
system—and further indicating that the nutrient
reductions achieved were meeting the goals of the
TMDL (Figure 3). On the basis of these data, PADEP
removed Harveys Lake from its 2014 list of impaired
waters. Project partners attribute the recovery of
this lake to the stream restoration, urban runoff
BMP implementation and the use of in-lake nutrient
reduction strategies.
Partners and Funding
Project partners included the Harveys Lake
Borough, the Harveys Lake Environmental
Advisory Council, the League of Women Voters of
Pennsylvania, PADEP and Princeton Hydro, LLC.
From 2000 to 2014, the partners used $1,690,364
from a CWA section 319 grant to restore the
Harveys Lake watershed—$125,595 to restore two
tributaries draining to the lake and the remainder
to install 38 urban runoff BMPs and fourfloating
wetland islands.
UJ
O
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-15-001FF
July 2015
For additional information contact:
Scott N. Heidel
Water Program Specialist
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
717-772-5647 • scheidel@state.pa.us
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