Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
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Restoring Stream Channel and Riparian Areas Improves Pierceville Run
Waterbodv Improved Sediment in runoff from agricultural lands impaired
r J Pennsylvania's Pierceville Run and its tributaries, prompting
the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to add 9.71 miles of
watershed streams to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired
waters in 2002. In lower Pierceville Run, project partners stabilized a degraded portion of
stream channel and restored riparian forest buffers while restricting livestock from the stream
and riparian areas. Water quality improved in the restored section, allowing PADEP to remove
a 1.65-mile-long segment of the Pierceville Run from the list of impaired waters in 2012.
Problem
Pierceville Run (Figure 1) is a headwater tributary
within the 72-square-mile South Branch Codorus
Creek watershed (South Branch) in York County.
Originating just north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania
border, Pierceville Run is designated for cold-water
fishery support.
Agriculture is the primary land use in the water-
shed. Nonpoint source runoff from cropland and
pastureland delivered high nutrient and sediment
loads to Pierceville Run and the South Branch.
Along the lower mainstem of Pierceville Run, the
streambanks were damaged by livestock. They had
been eroding at a rate of 1.5 feet per year, forming
three-to four-foot-high, unstable vertical banks.
A stream survey conducted by the Izaak Walton
League of America (IWLA) in 1999 indicated that
the Pierceville Run watershed was a degraded
aquatic ecosystem. PADEP performed a bioassess-
ment at two stations on the stream that same year
and confirmed that the stream was impaired by
siltation and flow alterations. As a result, PADEP
included all 9.71 stream miles of the Pierceville Run
watershed on the state's CWA section 303(d) list of
impaired waters in 2002 for not meeting the aquatic
life designated use because of siltation from
agricultural sources. The impaired waters included
5.81 miles of the mainstem of Pierceville Run as
well as 3.9 miles of tributaries.
PADEP developed a total maximum daily load
(TMDL) in 2003 to serve as a "pollution diet"
for the entire South Branch watershed, includ-
ing Pierceville Run. The TMDL set limits for
Figure 1. Watershed partners restored this section of
Pennsylvania's Pierceville Run by grading streambanks,
planting a riparian forest buffer and installing fences to
prevent cattle access.
the sediment and nutrient (total phosphorus)
loads, which serve as goals for remediation. The
9.71 impaired stream miles of Pierceville Run
required an 87 percent reduction in nutrients
(2,857.61 pounds per year); and a 42 percent reduc-
tion in sediment (1,539,972.47 pounds per year) to
meet the TMDL water quality goals.
In 2007 PADEP developed a Codorus Creek
watershed implementation plan (WIP), which listed
Pierceville Run as impaired because of streambank
erosion. Recommended practices included stabiliz-
ing the streambanks, preventing livestock stream
access and establishing riparian buffers.
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Project Highlights
The IWLA, PADEP and the York County
Conservation District partnered to address the
water quality problems identified in the TMDL and
the WIP. First, the partners designed and imple-
mented a natural stream channel restoration plan in
2006 for Pierceville Run. They restored 2,272 linear
feet of the stream channel along the WIP-identified
targeted segment (see Figure 1). The project aimed
to reduce sediment and nutrients while improving
flow regimes and aquatic habitat. The partners
installed in-stream rock structures and graded and
stabilized streambanks to stop active erosion and to
reconnect the stream to its floodplain.
Next, the partners planted an extensive ripar-
ian forest buffer along the project segment; it
included grasses, forbs and 600 trees. To protect
the restored streambanks and riparian forest buffer
areas, the partners installed livestock exclusion
fences. These restoration efforts were designed to
remediate the WIP-targeted segment of Pierceville
Run, as well as to improve water quality in down-
stream segments in the greater South Branch
watershed by removing pollution sources.
Results
The restoration efforts helped to reduce sediment
loads to Pierceville Run by an estimated 39 percent
(1,400,000 pounds per year), nearly meeting the
42 percent sediment reduction goal called for in the
TMDL. Restoration efforts have also led to progress
in meeting the 87 percent total phosphorus load-
ing reduction goal in the TMDL. As of 2011, total
phosphorus loading was reduced by 39 percent
(1,271 pounds per year).
In spring 2006, PADEP's Watershed Support Section
began monitoring the project area for pebble counts,
macroinvertebrates, habitat and water chemistry.
Pebble count data for 2006 and 2009 showed that
sediment size increased over time to include a great-
er percentage of larger gravel and cobbles, indicating
habitat improvement (Figure 2). Before the restora-
tion project in May 2006, the mid-station substrates
were composed of 34 percent sand-silt, 62 percent
gravel and 4 percent cobbles. By September 2009,
the percentages had improved to 4 percent sand-silt,
81 percent gravel and 15 percent cobbles.
PADEP performed an aquatic habitat assessment in
the restored section of Pierceville Run in 2011. The
Pebble Counts for Mid-station Pierceville Run,
2006 and 2009
Lliiiml
0.062 2.0 16.0 64.0 180.0
sand * fine gravel * coarse gravel > cobble
Particle Size (millimeters)
Figure 2. Pre- and post-project pebble counts for Pierceville Run
show a trend toward coarser gravel and cobbles, an indication of
improving conditions.
data showed an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) value of
71.3, exceeding the minimum IBI score of 63, which
indicates a healthy and unimpaired aquatic ecosys-
tem. On the basis of these data, PADEP removed a
1.65-mile-long segment of the lower mainstem of
Pierceville Run (from Schuman Road to the conflu-
ence of Pierceville Run and Centerville Run) from the
list of impaired waters. Project partners attribute the
delisting of this segment to the stream restoration
and riparian forest buffer establishment and associ-
ated protection efforts. Waterbodies upstream of
the project site (4.16 miles of the mainstem and
3.9 miles of tributaries) remain listed as impaired.
Partners and Funding
IWLA used a $142,922 CWA section 319 grant
in 1999 to assess the South Branch watershed.
The IWLA then secured a $534,120 CWA section
319 grant in 2003 to begin restoring the South
Branch watershed; $356,888 of these funds
were used for the Pierceville Run restoration
project. Approximately $25,000 of the riparian
forest buffer work was funded by PADEP and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program; the
York County Conservation District managed the
work. Matching funds included $2,000 from IWLA
and $52,000 from the Aquatic Resource Restoration
Company. The Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation provided $100,000 in matching funds
to assist in work near roadways in the watershed.
I
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a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-12-001N
June 2012
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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