The Choose Clean Water coalition brings together people and more than 130 organizations from Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, working together to help everyone in the region choose clean water.

This vidcast features Ryan Ewing, communications and outreach coordinator for the coalition, detailing the campaign to clean up our water here at home and throughout the region, all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. PennFuture and its Clean Water Starts Here campaigners are excited to be part of this coalition.

PennFuture works every day to make a difference for Pennsylvania's environment and economy. Isn't it time to join us and make a difference yourself? Go to our secure website to join PennFuture, and make sure you sign up for our publications. And remember, you won’t miss any podcasts if you subscribe to them through iTunes.

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Early in 2009, Foundation Mining petitioned the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to downgrade the rating of South Fork Tenmile Creek (SFTM) in Greene County, which would allow the company to dump dirty water into the creek with little or no treatment.

But that plan backfired on the company – big time, as former VP Cheney would say. After local conservationists and PennFuture got involved and documented the true value of the creek, DEP actually upgraded many parts of the creek, which means the company now has to take even more action to protect the water.

This week’s podcast, recorded in part at a celebration of DEP’s decision, features many of the people who worked so hard to get this great result. First, PennFuture’s western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator, Dr. Joylette Portlock, speaks with Krissy Kasserman from Mountain Watershed Association; Terri Davin from Center for Coalfield Justice; PennFuture’s Staff Attorney Brian Glass, who was lead counsel on the issue; and Attilia (Tillie) Shumaker from Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy. In the second part of the podcast, you’ll hear Joylette’s discussion with the experts on the case, Dr. Steve Kunz from Schmid and Company and Dr. Ben Stout.

PennFuture works every day to make a difference for Pennsylvania’s environment and economy. Isn’t it time to join us and make a difference yourself? Go to our secure website to join PennFuture, and make sure you sign up for our publications. And remember, you can make sure you don't miss any podcasts by subscribing to them through iTunes.

Last week, you learned of that special place in Sullivan and Lycoming Counties, the Loyalsock Creek. You met the women and men who have worked so hard to clean up the stream from damage from mining and other pollution, and how successful they've been.

In part two, the documentary features the risks that the area faces from poorly planned development. A shopping mall, proposed within the flood plain of the Loyalsock, could endanger the health of the stream, and the safety of everyone who lives, works, or plays downstream from the mall. And of course, anything that damages the Loyalsock will damage all the waters below it, including the Chesapeake Bay.

If you aren't a member of PennFuture, there’s no time like right now to join us. Your support will help us provide the assistance local communities, like the Loyalsock area, need to help protect their beautiful and vital waters, land and air. Each year, we provide at least $2 million in free legal help to local communities - your donation can help us do more.

And don’t forget that you can beat the crowd and listen to PennFuturePodcasts first. Just download the free software iTunes and follow the directions to subscribe to PennFuture's podcasts. They’ll be delivered to you automatically.

Pennsylvania has many outstanding and beautiful rivers, streams and creeks, and few are as well-loved and supported as Loyalsock Creek. The Loyalsock runs through Sullivan and Lycoming Counties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, eventually down to the Chesapeake Bay itself.

Loyalsock Creek is used for trout fishing and white water kayaking. The Loyalsock Trail is a wilderness trail that runs along it, providing opportunities for hiking. Worlds End State Park is located on the Loyalsock in Sullivan County.

This documentary features the people of the area who have worked ceaselessly to clean up the Loyalsock and are fiercely protecting it now. You’ll hear the pride in their voices as they talk about the recovery of the Loyalsock from damage from the coal industry and bad development, and exactly how important this waterway is to the quality of their lives.
And, of course, you’ll learn about the importance of cleaning all the streams and rivers upstream if we are ever to have a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

In Part two, which will be available on July 17, you’ll learn about the new threats to the Loyalsock, and what local citizens, working together, are doing to protect it.

Watershed health, especially in very populous areas, is greatly impacted by the manner in which we manage stormwater runoff. As you will hear and see in this video podcast, it's not the rain that's the problem. It's what happens to it once it hits the roofs, parking lots, and myriad other impermeable surfaces we've done such a thorough job of proliferating.

In this podcast, we join Jeff Bergman and Tim Converse of Pittsburgh's Nine Mile Run Watershed Association as they demonstrate proper rain barrel installation on residences in the area as part of the organization's Rain Barrel Initiative.

Rain barrels come in different sizes, colors, and specifications, but the basic principles remain the same: capture and store water from a roof, and then use the water for such applications as gardening or watering your lawn. In doing so, you've kept stormwater out of the storm sewer system, which in many urban areas in Pennsylvania and beyond, is horribly overtaxed as-is. Plus you're saving money on water usage.

Stormwater overflows are more and more commonplace, as sewer infrastructure is stretched far beyond capacity, and as the systems designed and installed many decades ago fail and decay. Helping to stem the tide in watersheds like Pittsburgh's Nine Mile Run dramatically help to improve water quality in the streams, benefiting everyone in the community-- humans and wildlife alike.

Of course, Pittsburgh isn't the only place where you'll find rain barrels popping up all over the place! Throughout the state, there are programs and initiatives underway. And many people simply make their own rain barrels, and have done so for ages. In arid states, capturing stormwater runoff is even required to help save water. Give it a try!

To learn more about how PennFuture is working around the state to improve water quality, visit our Web site. There you can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work. As always, we welcome your comments. Just e-mail us at podcast (at) pennfuture (dot) org, or click on "Comments" below.

Pennsylvania's Yellow Breeches Creek is a world-renowned trout fishery, and part of Pennsylvania's Scenic River System. In addition to providing outstanding habitat for fish and many other forms of wildlife, it is a source of drinking water. In this podcast, PennFuture's Jan Jarrett visits the stream at the site of the Hoffman Mill Dam removal in Lisburn (Cumberland County). She talks to Dale Bentz, a contractor hired to oversee the dam removal, and Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission's Dave Christine, a fish biologist working on this and similar projects throughout the state as part of their Migratory Fish Restoration Program. The goal of the project is to return Yellow Breeches to a free-flowing waterway once again, where its habitat can support migratory fish species such as American shad, American eel, and river herring, to name a few. Dam removal will also create physical changes to the stream channel that will improve existing fishing conditions as well as access to the stream for anglers. Funding sources for projects like this one come from a variety of state, federal, and non-profit sources, including Pennsylvania's Growing Greener program. You can learn more about dam removal in the Mid-Atlantic region at American Rivers' web site. To see more picutres of this dam removal project, click here here.