AGRICULTURE: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

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LEWISBURG - Although agriculture is responsible for the largest percentage of the pollution entering the Susquehanna River, the perception that farmers have been sitting on their hands and doing little about the problem is false, according to Paul Swartz, executive director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

Swartz was among those speaking recently at the third annual Susquehanna River Symposium at Bucknell University.

It marked the first time since the annual event began that farmers joined scientists and environmentalists in looking for solutions to problems related to the river, symposium coordinator Benjamin Hayes said.

"It's a challenge to talk about (the river), especially with farmers and environmentalists," said Cathleen Curran Myers, deputy secretary for the Office of Water Management within the state Department of Environmental Protection. "(Arguing) has happened in the past, but not so much anymore."

This year's symposium focused on agriculture, its impact on the river and the Chesapeake Bay, its contribution to the state's economy and quality of life, and challenges to both the river and agriculture's sustainability.

"This is exciting for us because it's the first time we've had farmers here to speak and present," Hayes said.

Swartz said agriculture is doing its part to clean up the bay and listed management practices implemented by the industry as proof.

"There has been tremendous progress - a revolution in agriculture in the last 35 years," Swartz said. "Fifty percent of crop land is no till. That was a brand new concept ... in the 1970s. Precision feeding - we never heard of precision feeding in the '70s or the '80s.

"The list goes on and on," he said. "Decades ago, we were aware of sediment loads in the basin, but as early as a decade ago, we never heard of legacy sediments. We've come a long way."

But there still is a long way to go to ensure the river's health and the health of the Chesapeake Bay, which draws at least half of its fresh water from the river, Swartz said.

"We need to do more to deal with nutrient loads from ag land, but there also also been revolutionary changes," Swartz said.

The multi-state initiative to clean up the Chesapeake Bay was a major topic of the symposium. The Susquehanna River watershed has been identified as a source of much of the pollution, in the form of sediment and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, that enters the bay.

The state has been ordered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reduce that pollution. As a result, wastewater treatment plants have been mandated to make millions of dollars worth of upgrades, the cost of which must be borne by their customers.

Marel Raub, state director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, talked about the bay and the impact the river has on its ecosystem.

The river supplies the bay with half of its fresh water and 90 percent of the flow to the upper bay, which provides habitat for crabs and fish, she said.

According to Raub, the bay supports a huge amount of plant and animal life commonly found only in tropical regions.

However, the bay "is impaired," Raub said. The bay's oyster population is at 1 percent of normal levels and crabs are at "precariously low levels," she said.

Nutrients cause algae blooms that deplete the bay of oxygen while sediment acts as a barrier to sunlight needed to sustain the ecosystem, she said.

Among the six solutions identified that will fix problems with the bay, five are agriculture-related, Raub said. Those solutions, which include nutrient managment practices, conservation tilling methods and the use of cover crops, are "cost-effective," she said.

In fact, the significant reductions in nutrients and sediments entering the bay by way of the river all can be attributed to agriculture because programs to upgrade sewage treatment plants have not yet been implemented, Raub said.

"Agriculture best management practices do make a difference," she said. "Ag is where we're seeing new programs and practices in place."

H.W. "Skip" Wieder, executive director of Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies, noted an inescapable link between the river and the farmers working the land in its watershed.

The coalition is a consortium of six regional colleges and universities that partnered with Geisinger Health System, Trout Unlimited and other organizations to look at environmental issues in the watershed.

The consortium includes Bucknell, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Susquehanna universities and Lycoming and King's colleges, according to Wieder.

"(The symposium) is a celebration of the Suquehanna River and agriculture in Pennsylvania and interdependence each on has on the other," Wieder said.

Likewise, the river influences the quality of life of everyone living in its watershed, Wieder said. Thus, it is imperative to protect the river.

"Many people choose where they live not so much by jobs, but by the quality of life," Weider said. "Here, we have one of the best qualities of life. It's our job to sustain that."