Countywide Action Plan (CAP)

Funding for these projects is from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Countywide Action Plan Implementation grant to Lancaster.

The Countywide Action Plan was originally developed in 2018 through a significant and collaborative grassroots approach with local partner organizations, experts, community members, and state agencies. Now, with nearly six years of implementation efforts, this revised version of the plan
emphasizes Lancaster’s progress, as well as lessons learned and new strategies to meet our reduction goals by 2025. Numeric goals per practice were updated in 2023.

The CAP is centered around the following priority initiatives:

Agriculture – The agricultural sector will require significant people and projects with implementation as the key driving factor in achieving long-term pollution reductions. Agricultural BMPs are captured by this initiative.

Developed – Lancaster County includes urban/suburban, rural, forested, industrial/ commercial, and open spaces not related to agricultural operations.

Natural – Riparian forest and grass buffers provide habitat, serve as flood protection, and filter water before it enters streams and rivers. BMPs from this Priority Initiative are extremely important to reaching our nutrient and sediment reduction goals. Efforts listed here will be managed by the Buffer Action Team, which implements new and maintains existing buffers and documents progress towards the county’s 8,655 total acres goal.

Data Management and Monitoring – The Data Management and Monitoring Priority Initiative is prioritizing the collective effort to develop a shared measurement system with access for multiple sources of data. A current focus area has been assembling water quality monitoring data, planning data, and other information from multiple agencies, in both tabular and spatial formats. The Metrics Analysis in 2023 gave us better accuracy and more precise goals moving forward.

TRACKING OUR PROGRESS

A core element of the Lancaster Countywide Action Plan (Lancaster CAP) is the Best Management Practice (BMP) Implementation Scenario. The scenario is a group of BMPs found across the agricultural, developed, and natural sectors. The primary objective of the scenario is for the county to demonstrate a proposed lump sum of reductions in nutrients and sediment through implementation of these BMPs by the end of 2025. Measuring the success of the overall CAP can best be described as a qualitative exercise with multiple considerations that cannot easily translate into a definitive and quantitative value, but the numeric reductions towards previously identified “targets” is a significant part of the success assessment.

Places2040 Planning Leadership Awards: Four Plain Sect farmers and partners from public, private, and nonprofit sectors are collaborating to implement practices that improve the health of both their operation and water quality in a small tributary of Pequea Creek in Paradise Township.

Lancaster Watershed Leadership Academy: 12 people from different backgrounds and industries came together to learn to be better stewards, better leaders and better change-makers. 12 months later, they had connected with local leaders, gained unique experiences and are ready for action that makes a difference in their watershed. The 2023 class held its graduation ceremony in December.

Funding: Senator Bob Casey Jr. announced an EPA grant of $14.3 million for Pennsylvania farmers, Governor Josh Shapiro announced a DEP allocation of $4 million to Lancaster CAP, and Lancaster Clean Water Fund announced nearly $65,000 awarded to local initiatives aimed at enhancing Lancaster County’s water quality.

Senior Living Community Green Master Plans: Senior Living communities in Lancaster County, like Willow Valley and Woodcrest Villa added employed sustainable landscaping practices like rain gardens and planting native trees and flowers to their complexes. Residents even volunteered to maintain them.

Penn State and Donegal Trout Unlimited Nursery: The Penn State Agriculture and Environment Center and Donegal Trout Unlimited moved their native tree nursery to the Penn State Research Farm, which means more space, automatic and reliable watering, increased volunteer and staff support, improved accessibility for vehicles, and other benefits.

The Nature Conservancy’s work in the Cocalico Watershed: The Nature Conservancy teamed up with LandStudies, Inc. and West Cocalico Township and restored 3,867 linear feet of degraded stream channel to as close to historical ecological conditions as possible, removed 18,000 cubic yards of legacy sediment, restored more than eight acres of floodplain, and planted nearly 13 acres of riparian buffer.

Amish Liaison Project: Building relationships with the Plain Sect community takes time and trust. A dedicated team of environmentalists continually makes progress in expressing the need for BMPs on local farms.

Fishing Creek Stream Restoration: Friends of Fishing Creek worked with 15 Jeep organizations who enjoy the Fishing Creek Watershed for leisure and recreation. They held an event specifically focused on the local Jeep Clubs with an educational drive on the public dirt road that travels along Fishing Creek for 3.8 miles with three concrete fords.

Indian Spring Run Catchment Council: Work on Indian Run involved removal of a dam to address non-point source pollution and restoring four acres of critical wetland and headwater habitat in a high-quality cold water fishery.

Lititz Run Stream Restoration at Millport Conservancy: Restoration of 6.5 miles of the stream reclassified it from a warm water stream to a cold water stream that now supports a healthy ecology, including trout.

Overlook Forested Buffer and Meadow: Managed by Stroud Water Research Center with contributions from nine other organizations, it is an eight-acre streamside forest and pollinator garden is being created in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, near the Little Conestoga Creek, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Conewago Creek Floodplain and wetlands restoration: A watershed-based approach to fulfill MS4 requirements, reduce local flooding, and improve local water quality in Londonderry Township.

Water Week: In its seventh year, Water Week, managed by Lancaster Conservancy, boasted over 40 events where participants could paddle, explore, volunteer, and take action as a community to protect our streams and rivers for the future!

MS4orum: Managed by the Stormwater Management Team, this annual event was held at Clipper Magazine Stadium and drew 80+ engineers and municipal officials.

The CAP Coordinator Team is comprised of Land Studies Inc., Lancaster Farmland Trust, David Miller/Associates and Lancaster County Conservation District.  Collectively, with the Lancaster Clean Water Partners, they coordinate and support activities for Lancaster County’s Countywide Action Plan.  They reasearch and share new and creative clean water funding opportunities for cross-sector partners and are invloved in projects from planning to implementation and report the results to the DEP  and the EPA.