The Kutztown Borough Council unanimously approved a motion to continue their practice of performing water quality initiatives by contributing $15,000 to the Berks County Conservancy to promote Best Management Practices for the Saucony Creek Watershed.
According to board member Derek Mace, the council has worked with the Berks County Conservancy for a number of years to promote better water quality initiatives.
Nitrate has been a reoccurring concern in the borough due to the amount of farmland in the area. When farmers use fertilizer on their land, nitrates in the fertilizer’s make-up can permeate the ground and end up in the borough’s wells. It is the Council’s responsibility to monitor these levels and not allow an excess of nitrates to enter the borough’s water source.
“The DEP [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] has restrictions on how much nitrate can be in the water,” Mace said. “The nitrates go into the water and then can’t be pumped out.”
In order to prevent this, the borough has taken several steps. First, a nitrate removal plant has been constructed over the past year, according to Mace. The plant’s purpose is very straightforward – to remove nitrate from the borough’s water supply.
While the new nitrate removal plant is a reactive method, the borough supports the Berks County Conservancy as a proactive means of eliminating excess nitrate.
“The other way to stop nitrates from being in the water is to stop them from getting into the soil in the first place. That’s what some of the retention work does at the farms,” Mace said.
Mace praised Larry Lloyd, a senior ecologist with the Berks County Conservancy, for his retention work at the farms. Through Lloyd and the Conservancy’s efforts, the borough has the resources to control the amount of nitrate that seeps into its water supply. In addition, the council’s attention to water quality initiatives benefits more than just the immediate borough.
“This doesn’t help just our water supply, but everything downstream of the Saucony [Creek], which includes the Reading area water supply and the Philadelphia water supply,” Mace said.
In other news, the board unanimously approved a motion to authorize the Great Valley Consultants to coordinate with the Kutztown police chief to proceed with the traffic study at Baldy Street and Trexler Avenue.
“They want to put four-way stop signs up there,” Council President Kevin Snyder said.
The purpose of the traffic study is to determine whether the stop signs are feasible for the intersection. There is no timetable as to when the study will be completed at this time.
The Kutztown Borough Council’s next meeting will take place on March 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Train Station.
