| Slippery Rock Watershed Assessment |
| Public Meeting Summary |
The meeting was held in conjunction with the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition's Annual Get-Together, with approximately 35 people attending.
Cody Salmon of Beran Environmental Services, Inc. presented a PowerPoint focusing on the progress that has been made on the assessment since the last meeting. This includes the development of many GIS layers, 12 water quality sampling events, electrofishing, macroinvertebrate sampling, and land use mapping for the more than 35,000 acres in the study area. His presentation was followed by a question and answer session. Most of the questions focused on the electrofishing event.
Following Cody's presentation, Holly Martinchek, also of Beran Environmental, presented Mr. Darrell Daubenspeck with a certificate and appreciation gift for the time he volunteered for collecting water samples.
The meeting commenced at 7:10 pm. Bob Beran gave an introduction and PowerPoint presentation. The presentation covered such topics as:
Dr. Bruce Dickson of Confluence Ecological spoke about the biological surveys to be completed and about previous watershed assessments he has conducted. He explained how the biological community is an indicator of a stream's health. This was informative and helped the audience understand why we would be conducting certain studies. Dr. Dickson also spoke of environmentally conscious farming practices.
The following is a list of questions that were asked at the meeting. Answers are summarized.
Q- Will something be done about the stream near McJunkin Road, which has become polluted since the early 80s?
Q- Will the database be accessible to the DEP?
Q- Will you be contacting landowners as you go?
Q- How do you address farmers that allow cattle in stream?
Q- Are streams assessed one at a time? How do you cover all the streams?
Q- How many people will be collecting samples at a time?
Q- Is the flooding near Boyers a critical area, and how would it be addressed?
Q- Once you start gathering information, how long will it take to get on the internet?
The feed back from all present at the meeting was positive; no objections to the assessment were raised.
The meeting ended at approximately 8:35 pm. Several people stayed and spoke with Bob and Bruce for approximately an hour after the meeting.
15 people attended - the roads were treacherous due to a snow storm
Bob spoke for approximately an hour, providing details about the assessment and answering questions from the audience.
A- All problem sites will be identified and remediation options will be provided in the restoration/protection plan.
A- The data will be publicly available on the internet and a report made to the DEP.
A- Efforts were taken to identify and contact all property owners with stream(s) on their property.
A- Several different farming practices that reduce the pollution of waterways by livestock were introduced, along with ways to get funding for farmers to help them install environmentally sound farming practices. It was noted that all changes are voluntary - the assessment will not result in any regulatory action.
A- Dr. Dickson explained how the assessment would start downstream on the main branches with the assessment team work its way upstream into different tributaries. This order will allow the determination of whether or not it is necessary to continue upstream.
A- Probably only two or three people.
A- The flooding is a severe problem, and its causes will be inspected. It was noted that the cause of the problem could be miles away from the actual flooding.
A- As soon as the data is collected it can be put on the internet. Things such as updates, progress reports, pictures, water quality data, and the final report can be uploaded.
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