Submitted by Centre County PA Senior Environmental Corp
CENTRE COUNTY — The new year brings glad tidings for several streams in Centre County monitored by a group of “citizen scientists/first observers” whose mission it is to promote public awareness of the importance of clean water.
The Centre County chapter of the PA Senior Environmental Corps noted in its 2024 Annual Report that a steady state of good health prevailed for most of the 30-some streams its members keep watchful eyes on during the year. Begun more than two decades ago, and operating since 2008 under the auspices of ClearWater Conservancy, CCPaSEC is a group of seniors and others who perform monthly checks of select waterways in the county, making measures of such physical parameters as stream width, depth and flow rate, as well as analyzing nutrient loads and inventorying macroinvertebrate life — the latter an index of a stream’s water quality.
“The data that CCPaSEC members collect paint a picture of a stream’s ecological health and can contribute to the effective management of waterways and watersheds,” Bill Smith, CCPaSEC president, said “I’m pleased to report that things look generally good for our water resources going into 2025.”
Each year, members of the Centre County Chapter of PaSEC devote hundreds of hours and travel thousands of miles to make trained observations and conduct chemical analyses of assigned streams.
In 2024, 14 teams comprising three to six members each fanned out across Centre County, monitoring streams and one spring in five of the 12 major watersheds draining county lands. One of those watersheds, Beech Creek, is home to several CCPaSEC-monitored streams deemed “at risk” of impact from the effects of Marcellus Shale drilling. Team members last year noted that Beech Creek itself, long deprived of aquatic life by acid mine drainage, has recovered enough at one monitoring site that people now report catching trout there. The turnaround, team members say, is due to an acid-buffering “lime doser” operating on a tributary of the troubled stream.
Elsewhere on Centre County streams monitored by CCPaSEC, team members reported generally stable conditions in 2024, with little change in concentrations of measured nutrients including nitrates, sulfates and phosphates. Numbers and varieties of aquatic insects, crustaceans and other macroinvertebrates collected — and then returned unharmed to their habitats — were also steady, indicating an overall positive health report for the county’s waterways. This, despite the persistence of dry-to-drought conditions in late summer months that in recent years has resulted in lower-than-normal water levels in some monitored streams.
To learn more about CCPaSEC’s stream-monitoring activities, and to access its 2024 Annual Report and its growing database of findings, visit ccpasec.org.
CCPaSEC welcomes new members. No scientific background is needed; just some basic observation skills (training provided) and an interest in protecting Centre County’s treasured water resources. Registration with either ClearWater Conservancy or the county’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is required. Anyone interested in joining or going afield with a CCPaSEC team to gauge interest in joining, is encouraged to contact membership coordinator Jan Hoffmaster at janhoffmaster63@gmail.com or visit the website.
