Culp Run Restoration Talk

Watershed Alliance to host talk on Culp Run restoration.

The Watershed Alliance of Adams County will host a public talk on the recent restoration of Culp Run in the Gettysburg National Military Park beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at the Adams County Agricultural and Natural Resources Center, 670 Old Harrisburg Rd., Gettysburg.

Anyone interested in learning more about the stream-restoration project and its many benefits is welcome to attend. A representative from Lititz-based environmental-design firm LandStudies, Inc., which designed and implemented the restoration project, will be on hand to discuss the many facets of the work, which was completed last fall. The Gettysburg Borough Storm Water Authority (GBSWA) launched the Culp Run restoration in response to federal stormwater-management mandates aimed at curbing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Gettysburg engineering firm C.S. Davidson & Son helped define the cleanup project, which required close coordination with the Gettysburg National Military Park. Culp Run is a small stream that begins in the Borough of Gettysburg and flows for less than a mile through the military park before emptying in Rock Creek. The stream’s main restoration zone is visible along East Confederate Avenue in the military park. In brief, the restoration project consisted of removing sediments from the stream, restoring the stream’s bends and curves, grading the stream banks to minimize erosion, and stabilizing the stream banks with temporary matting while permanent riparian plantings take root. As the Borough of Gettysburg and surrounding areas of Adams County have become increasingly developed, more impervious surfaces—like roofs and paved streets and alleys—have been built, preventing rainwater from soaking into the ground. Today, when it rains in Gettysburg, most of the rainwater runs off into storm sewers rather than soaking into the ground. Most of the stormwater runoff from the east side of Gettysburg flows into Culp Run. During large rain events, this runoff significantly increases the small stream’s flow, causing the sediment along the banks to erode into the stream, which then flows into Rock Creek and eventually, the Chesapeake Bay. Sediment like this is one of the major polluters of the Bay. To combat this water pollution on the local level, the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ambitious multi-state initiative to clean up the Chesapeake Bay includes pollution-reduction standards for local municipalities. The GBSWA was established to address the EPA’s pollution-reduction goals locally, and the Culp Run restoration project was initiated to meet these goals. Its completion has enabled the GBSWA to exceed the EPA’s sediment-reduction goals for the Gettysburg Borough.

The Watershed Alliance of Adams County, which will host the Culp Run restoration talk, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing and protecting the water resources of Adams County. For more information about the Watershed Alliance, visit AdamsWatersheds.org.