Recognition of Community-Based "Local-Federal Potomac River Partnerships"

Recognition of Community-Based "Local-Federal Potomac River Partnerships"

Evitts Creek is located in the Potomac Watershed in southern Bedford County, Pennsylvania.  The runoff from the farms in Evitts Creek watershed is the primary drainage area for two lakes providing drinking water to the city of Cumberland, Maryland.  Some recreational opportunities are also being developed at the lakes.

Interest in the watershed was first introduced through USDA Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) about seven years ago when there was obvious friction between the residents of Cumberland, Maryland and the farmers in Pennsylvania who appeared to be contributing the polluted runoff to the Cumberland water supply lakes.  Many of the farmers in the watershed could be considered limited resource farmers.  The costly changes in farming operations that were needed to increase profits on the farms and greatly benefit the quality of the water supply would only come about with assistance beyond the financial resources of the farmers themselves.

Today, nearly all of the farmers in this small watershed in Pennsylvania are implementing a variety of conservation practices designed by the conservation partnership to assist the farmers in their own operations and in improving the quality of the water supply in Cumberland, Maryland.  The most active members of this partnership includes the USDA-NRCS, USDA-RC&D, Bedford County Conservation District, Pennsylvania Game Commission, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Cumberland Water Company.  Conservation practices most evident throughout the watershed are several miles of fenced streams, manure storages, barnyard runoff control, improved cattle feeding areas, wetland and wildlife habitat development, and sediment reducing erosion control practices.

The undesirable algae bloom in the lakes that had previously occurred twice each year causing foul tasting water after treatment, did not occur in the summer of 1998.  Algae bloom is known to be a direct result of excess nutrients from runoff.  These nutrients have been greatly reduced by conservation practices dealing with animal waste in the streams funded by USDA-NRCS through EQIP.  In addition, there is a feeling of good will between the farmers in the Evitts Creek watershed in Pennsylvania and the residents who drink the water down stream in Cumberland, Maryland.