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Storming Through
By Producer, Kelly Meinhart
 emember
the days of the drought? It wasn’t that long ago, yet
these days, many Pennsylvanians night welcome the idea.
 he
past year has simply been an overwhelmingly wet year, and it
leads us to wonder how 2002 offered such a rainfall deficit,
while 2003 has been so unrelenting.
 t
seems like everyone had their fair share of flooding throughout
2003, but most likely none have been hit as hard as the southeastern
areas of the state.
n
the upcoming months, Watersheds.tv will be featuring a ten-minute
video about the affects of 2003’s rainfalls, and how our
stormwater systems have been put to the test. The video will
feature both Bucks County and Chester County, two areas with
very serious problems to tackle.
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Southern Bucks County, many of the issues revolve around the
fact that the communities are built within the floodplain of
the Delaware River. These areas are naturally wet to begin with,
and prior to being filled in by development, they were actually
wetlands.
 ommon
sense would tell us not to build in these areas – but
back in those days, we simply didn’t understand the importance
of wetlands and how they function, and so common sense doesn’t
always win out. For instance, the town of Levittown, well known
as one of the first ‘great communities’ was built
on a very flat area of the floodplain. Not only that, but it
was built without any storm water systems in place.
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 ater
literally has no place to go in many Bucks County communities,
like Levittown, and in times of heavy rainfalls, the water travels
through area streams at an alarming rate – taking anything
in its path with it. The results are rippling; heavy, fast flows
turn small local streams into flooding rivers, tearing down
its banks as it flows fast and furiously toward the Delaware.
 osing
sediment from streambanks is a widespread problem throughout
Pennsylvania. We see it everywhere from the small streams flowing
through farm fields to the larger systems flowing through residential
communities. The problem here is that we’re losing our
valuable soil.
 oil
is not only lost from our farm fields and streambanks, but it
is lost from our properties – our back yards. It’s
a very popular, even romantic, idea to live along a stream.
But what many people don’t consider is the fact that their
little backyard stream could also tear away at their property.
This very thing has happened to Debra Gainer, a homeowner in
Levittown.
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he
and her husband originally bought their property because they
loved the natural area behind their house, the small stream
and the trees. They had dreams of enhancing the natural habitat,
and building a small bridge to take them across the stream for
wooded hikes. These days her son isn’t even allowed to
venture into their backyard when it’s raining, simply
because it becomes too dangerous.
ou may wonder how a small stream could become that dangerous,
but in fact, there have been several cases in Bucks County alone
where children have been washed downstream, some even killed,
by heavy flows.
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 ohn
McHale lives very close to a Bucks County stream that has already
claimed the lives of area children. Thankfully, John was in
the right place at the right time to help several neighborhood
children who were being swept downstream – the banks were
too high and muddy for them to climb out. John was there to
help.
hese banks didn’t always look this way, but over the past
few years John has seen the detrimental affects that upstream
development and poor stormwater management have had. You’ll
learn more about both John and Debra in the upcoming production.
hankfully, the Bucks County Conservation District is working
hard to help homeowners and area residents deal with their stormwater issues. Gretchen Schatschneider, Watershed Specialist
for BCCD, and I have been working together for months to develop
the upcoming video. Gretchen works one-on-one with area residents
to help them understand the issues, and offers solutions to
their stormwater issues.
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sure to check out the video clips and photo galleries to learn
a bit more about the Bucks County issues, and keep your eyes
open for the sneak preview of Chester County.
he full-length feature will be airing this spring – so
if you haven’t already signed up as a Watershed Watcher,
you may want to now. We send you monthly emails with the show
schedules, that way you won’t miss a beat! Become a Watershed
Watcher NOW.
For more information:
 Bucks
County Conservation District
Chester
County Conservation District
Chester
County Stormwater BMP program – previously featured
on Watersheds.tv
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