The state Department of Environmental Protection has declared a portion of the Susquehanna River to be “impaired,” the first-ever designation of that kind for a major Pennsylvania waterway.
The finding is based on a multi-agency report on a long-term fish sickness and pollutants emptied into Chesapeake Bay. The controversial designation releases undetermined state and federal funding and actions. But representatives of stakeholder groups that participated in the report suggest the narrow ruling covering just 4 miles of water is itself controversial.
“Despite how long this has been going on, all the research that’s been done, this doesn’t address the issue,” said John Arway, executive director of the state Fish and Boat Commission, who for years has been lobbying for Susquehanna River remediation.
The joint study released this year by the DEP, the state Fish and Boat Commission and a half-dozen partner agencies showed a connection between a widespread smallmouth bass disease and agricultural runoff and municipal sewage discharge, with parasite infestation a secondary complication. Mr. Arway said the long-awaited DEP action addresses only a local problem involving catfish contamination by PCB chemicals.
“The local issue that the DEP deals with here has nothing to do with the health of the bass and the larger problems that we researched,” he said. “The primary decision about whether to list [as impaired] or not was because of the health of the bass. They deferred their decision on the bass until 2018.”
The DEP extended an existing fish consumption advisory to additional parts of the river, but Harry Campbell, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the impairment decision does not address bay pollution.
“Considering the plight of the smallmouth bass, not declaring the lower Susquehanna to be impaired is another example of Pennsylvania’s continued lack of leadership, dedication and investment when it comes to following through with its … commitment that dates back to 2010,” he said in a statement. “Pennsylvania is not serving the needs of its citizens or the animals that rely on clean water for their very lives.”
The 27,500-square-mile Susquehanna River watershed bisects Pennsylvania, draining as far west as Indiana County and north of the Finger Lakes in central New York. The river crosses a few miles of Maryland before reaching Chesapeake Bay.
In 2003, researchers found the river delivered 44 percent of the nitrogen, 21 percent of the phosphorus and 21 percent of the sediment pouring into the bay at a rate of 18 million gallons per minute. In 2005, the same year the environmental group American Rivers dubbed the Susquehanna “America’s Most Endangered River,” unexplained lesions, sores and deformities were found on tens of thousands of the river’s smallmouth bass.
Five years later, Pennsylvania committed to a timetable, the Clean Water Blueprint, which requires the state to have 60 percent of necessary water pollution-reduction practices in place by 2017. Failure to meet timetable deadlines could result in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s withholding of millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding. EPA could require Pennsylvania municipalities to make costly sewage upgrades and Washington could pressure the state to enforce existing regulations on agricultural discharge
EPA officials had no comment Monday on DEP’s declaration of 4 miles of impairment.
In a statement, Patrick McDonnell, DEP acting secretary, said research would continue. River monitoring has increased and new analytic protocols are being designed that he said would “set the bar for scientific study of large river systems.”
The deteriorating health of the Susquehanna River has exposed rifts separating the goals of state agencies. Pennsylvania and the DEP in particular repeatedly missed deadlines to declare impairment and have not taken additional actions. The Fish and Boat Commission has lobbied extensively for action on the Susquehanna River. Mr. Arway has publicly challenged the delays and asked the federal government to force the DEP off the fence.
“What standard of proof does [DEP] want to make up their minds about the smallmouth disease?” he said. “What information do they require? We’ll help to research it. They won’t tell us.”
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: August 2, 2016, 4:00 a.m.