Getting Pennsylvania Back On Track

EPA grant helps ALLARM鈥檚 network monitor the waters running into the Chesapeake Bay

by Tony Moore

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that Pennsylvania is 鈥渟ubstantially off-track鈥� in meeting its goals to reduce the amount of agriculture-based nitrogen and soil polluting the Chesapeake Bay. Now, Dickinson鈥檚 Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM)鈥攊n partnership with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, the Izaak Walton League of America and the University of Maryland鈥攚ill embark on a six-year, multimillion-dollar federally funded project to better understand the health of Pennsylvania and New York waterways and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The federal grant鈥�$420,000 of which will go to ALLARM鈥攚ill allow ALLARM and its partners to expand the number of local volunteers trained and actively involved in water-quality monitoring across the watershed and integrate the resulting data into the EPA鈥檚 Chesapeake Bay Program reports and decision-making process. The funding marks an unprecedented level of governmental confidence in citizen science, a hallmark of ALLARM鈥檚 approach.

Taking the lead

鈥淚t鈥檚 thrilling to be a part of the first multistate, watershed-wide program that integrates community data into bay-management strategies,鈥� says Julie Vastine '03, ALLARM鈥檚 director. The project鈥攚hich will fall under the aegis of the EPA鈥檚 Scientific Technical Assessment and Reporting Team鈥攚ill continue the 30-year tradition of local communities engaging in testing their own waterways' quality and further positions Dickinson as a leader in monitoring Pennsylvania鈥檚 and the bay鈥檚 watersheds.

Nearly half of the Chesapeake Bay鈥檚 water comes from Pennsylvania streams and rivers, and the testing protocols established by ALLARM鈥攁nd subsequently implemented by its network of citizen scientists鈥攚ill help establish benchmarks against which Pennsylvania鈥檚 progress toward its Chesapeake Bay Program goals will be measured.

A living laboratory

The initiative also will involve Dickinson students and faculty members, who will continue to use the region as an extension of the classroom and a living laboratory.

鈥淎lready students have had the opportunity to travel to Annapolis, Md., to meet with decision makers in federal agencies such as the Chesapeake Bay Program, the EPA, the U.S. Geological Service and the National Parks Service,鈥� says Vastine, who is now looking ahead to a number of research questions that ALLARM, faculty and students can examine through the new funding.

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Published August 20, 2015

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