Over the past seven years, the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) has provided technical assistance to the Wyomissing Creek Watershed Coalition, a unique coalition of eight municipalities that drain to the Wyomissing Creek in Berks County, Pennsylvania. As a cold water fishery with a naturally reproducing trout population, Wyomissing Creek has a special set of TMDL requirements. These municipalities share a single wasteload allocation as identified in the 2004 sediment TMDL and they work together to meet federal and state Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) stormwater requirements.
CWP initially coordinated with the Berks County MS4 Steering Committee to hold several trainings on MS4 related topics. Municipal and county staff, local consultants, Berks County Conservation District staff and others were trained on the topics of illicit discharge detection and elimination, stormwater best management practices (BMPs) and stormwater retrofit field analysis and design. Participants in the stormwater retrofit training identified several potential stormwater projects at Pennwyn Playground in Cumru Township. Working with an advisory committee of county and municipal staff, this list of practices was prioritized, and a final project selected to move forward on design and construction. CWP designed and coordinated implementation of this project, a rain barrel and infiltration facility to filter the rooftop runoff from the existing pavilion at the playground.
CWP has also assisted the Coalition by calculating the pollutant reduction value of several stormwater BMPs identified in the Northridge subwatershed of the Wyomissing Creek watershed, providing guidance on the new 2018 PAG MS4 permit, and identifying several on-site stormwater retrofit practices to include in the Wyomissing TMDL Plan. In 2019, CWP designed, installed and coordinated a community planting of a rain garden. The rain garden was installed to reduce pollutants from the parking lot at the City of Wyomissing Municipal Pool. Additionally, in conjunction with project partners, CWP organized three stream clean-ups and a tree planting that engaged the public.
“I would strongly recommend CWP to other coalitions,” says Nicholas Johnson, head of the Coalition and a Project Manager at Great Valley Consultants. “They secured a sizeable grant so that we could research our big list of BMPs and start calculating sediment and nutrient load reductions associated with the various projects. Julie from CWP drove all the way up here a few weeks ago to lend a hand with a trash cleanup day. They understand that this isn’t going to be fixed in a day, but they get things done — even literally lending a hand — to work towards a successfully restored watershed.”
CWP would like to acknowledge the Altria Group for their generosity in funding this work.
