Common Agenda
Our Common Agenda is our path towards clean and clear streams by 2040.
The Lancaster Clean Water Partners brings together a diverse group of partner organizations – local leaders in business, municipal public service, higher education, conservation planning, and non-profit management – with a shared vision of clean and clear water in Lancaster County by 2040.
Our shared mission is to rapidly accelerate and expand the ability of the partner
organizations to restore and sustain healthy Lancaster County waterways.
The Common Agenda outlines how we’ll get there.
BY 2025
- 7.14 million pounds of nitrogen reduced
- 540,000 pounds of phosphorus reduced
- 222.7 million pounds of sediment reduced
BY 2030
- Reduction of impaired streams to 350 miles
- 75% of adult county residents familiar with Lancaster County’s impaired streams
We are updating our Common Agenda in 2025!
We believe that the Common Agenda must be a fluid and evolving document that represents our current goals. We have set aside time in 2025 to update the document.
As a Lancaster resident, you can fish and walk along local creeks—but many of them are not as healthy as they should be. That’s why local groups are working together to restore and protect our waterways. What improvements matter most to you? Join us for a virtual or an in-person conversation about the next roadmap and the collaborative steps Lancaster partners are taking over the next five years to clean and protect our creeks.
To effectively achieve clean and clear streams in Lancaster County, our shared solution, vision, mission must all be synergistic parts of the process.
THE CHALLENGE:
More than half of Lancaster County’s 1,400 miles of streams are impaired.
Lancaster County streams have the highest amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in monitored areas of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. With a mixture of rural, suburban, and city landscapes, the source for water pollution is broad – but so is the opportunity for conservation and restoration.
THE SOLUTION:
Build and sustain a local multi-sector collaboration, supported by a strong backbone organization, to advance a community-led Common Agenda toward a shared result.
PRIORITIES
- Sustainable restoration of priority streams through regional collaboration and watershed approaches
- Use of data to consistently track progress, drive decision-making, and foster collaboration
- Acquisition of realistic, adequate funding for well-coordinated, common sense solutions
- Scaled use of sustainable, proven and promising practices (BMPs) at adequate levels for rapid success with the (CAP)
- Achieve policy and process changes that facilitate the needs of Lancaster County efforts
- Deploying an active communication plan to raise awareness that leads to behavioral change
STRATEGIES
- Through a backbone organization with strong, local leadership mobilize a collaborative, broad, and diverse partnership
- Leverage Lancaster County’s role in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to acquire adequate, sustained resources
- Share monitoring data on a common platform available to partners to prioritize resources and assess BMP effectiveness
- Implement an effective, equitable communications plan to educate and empower partners and all County residents to take action
- Focus on development and installation of BMPs with highest ROI and greatest potential for achieving clean and clear water
- Engage the business community to support the Partners by adopting internal policies and providing financial support
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
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BECOME A PARTNER ORGANIZATION
If you share our vision of clean and clear water in Lancaster County by 2040, we want to hear from you!