Support Chiques Creek Alternative Restoration Plan

Support Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay & Local Impaired Waterways

Chiques Creek Watershed, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

The Chiques Creek Watershed is in the midst of Pennsylvania’s richest and most productive agricultural region and includes several historic, yet burgeoning population centers. In partnership with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), Penn State University agriculture and Environment Center, and other technical assistance resources, SRBC is part of a team committed to empowering local stakeholders to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution in manners that foster stream recovery. The partnership is finalizing an Alternative Restoration Plan (ARP); that is, a flexible blueprint with multiple pathways to reduce sediment and nutrient loads to levels consistent with healthy waters, both locally and downstream. Critical to the ARP is a dynamic database with more than 550 specific Best Management Practices and Projects identified and vetted so far in the watershed that, following implementation, are expected to dramatically improve waterway integrity. SRBC and our partners also are committed to a long‐term aquatic resource monitoring program to track the progression of recovery.

• Securing resources for the amount of work needed to implement “on‐the‐ground” measures needed to achieve reductions

• Securing vested partnerships with local stakeholders for implementation

• •  Complete watershed model development
  (July 2018)
• •  Complete watershed implementation strategy
  (September 2018)
• •  Select and begin a large‐scale pilot implementation project
  (June 2019)
• •  Support ongoing local stakeholder project implementation
  (June 2021)