It’s in your nature: Watersheds
No one who will doubt that the crude oil reserves on this earth are finite. At some period of time it will either be totally consumed or so energy consuming to find and extract it, that it will be essentially lost. Even “big oil” is trying to develop other sources of energy production.
New and existing energy production seems to be in the media forefront, in morning coffee shop discussions, or with your neighbors. But too many of us are forgetting another resource that is being abused and not conserved properly: clean freshwater.
In our own local (still rather rural) area, we fortunately have extensive forested areas that collect and store precipitation. This “captured” water eventually makes its way into the groundwater that feeds springs, streams and eventually rivers. Most of us take for granted that this resource is ever present.
However, with the intrusions of warehouses, strip malls, huge paved parking lots for these “necessities,” large housing developments, and even solar and wind farm constructions, these forested areas are being destroyed. We are losing valuable forested surface area so crucial to capture this water.
By definition, a watershed is an area or region drained by a river, river system, or other body of water. Our largest local watershed is the Lehigh River watershed. The Lehigh River feeds into an even larger watershed, the Delaware River watershed. On a smaller scale, locally we rely on smaller watersheds to supply much of our area with clean and safe water.
The borough of Lehighton (Lehighton Water Authority) utilizes two watersheds to help capture our average annual precipitation of about 40 inches. The Long Run watershed (containing the Long Run Reservoir) encompasses about 1 square mile (over 650 acres.) The Pine Run watershed is much larger, at 4.3 square miles or over 2,800 acres. In my “younger leg days” my father and I hiked and hunted a few areas along pine run where its cold, clear waters hold native brook trout and where you never hesitated to stop and take a drink. It was important to the past visionaries of the Lehighton area to see the value of protecting the forested areas of this watershed to ensure that the Lehighton area and surrounding communities would never have to worry about this precious resource.
The city of Bethlehem, nearly 100 years ago, began planning to find a reliable and safe water supply. Eastern Carbon County and Western Monroe County offered them what they needed. Today, the Bethlehem Authority owns and protects about 23,000 acres of watershed lands with two reliable feeder streams, Wild Creek and Hell Creek. The Wild Creek watershed contains two reservoirs, Wild Creek (constructed in 1941) and Penn Forest Reservoirs (completed in 1958.) The latter stores water for Wild Creek. All total, the two reservoirs hold 10.3 billion gallons of water. Two pipelines running over 20 miles transport water to Bethlehem, the Industrial areas nearby, and other communities with freshwater.
I hope our community leaders and planners will keep an open mind when requests are made to clear “700” acres of forest for solar farms or huge warehouse distribution areas in the midst of watersheds. We have been spoiled knowing that freshwater is so available. Before sewage, erosion and runoff from vehicles jeopardize these lands, responsible decisions need to be made for the future.
Our growing water needs of the East Coast cities may be more crucial in years ahead than worrying where the gas comes from to fill their “tanks.” Let’s all realize how crucial protecting our watersheds are to this country’s future.
Follow the headlines this summer as Southern California struggles to find ways to get and wisely use the precious water that it needs for agriculture, industry and most importantly, their personal consumption. Keep thinking of the next generations that follow in our footsteps.
Trivia Answer: I may have erred and reported the wrong answer from 2 weeks ago. Mink, river otters, and fishers are all residents in this region.
Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Mourning doves, by far, build the most nests each year; sometimes as many as four or five.
Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Lake Mead, formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is at its lowest level ever. The Colorado River watershed is about ____ acres in size. A. 100,000 B. 1 million, C. 25 million.
Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.