The Triple Divide Watershed Coalition serves to protect public drinking water sources within the headwaters region of the Allegheny, Genesee and Susquehanna River systems from any degradation of source water quantity or quality.
This is accomplished by proactively evaluating susceptibility to contamination, working to minimize or eliminate potential threats, creating long-range protection strategies, supporting local planning and inter-governmental cooperation, encouraging public education initiatives, and any other activity to protect and preserve drinking water resources for future generations.
The Triple Divide Watershed Coalition held its initial meeting in November of 2011. The initial coalition members consisted all of the nine Community Public Water systems in Potter County. These systems supply drinking water to the residents of Austin Borough, Cole Memorial Hospital, Coudersport Borough, Galeton Borough, Genesee Township, the Northern Tier Children’s Home, Roulette Township, Shinglehouse Borough and Ulysses Borough. All of these water systems have DEP approved Sourcewater Protection Plans. These plans along with a common concern for the protection of our drinking water resources in the face of increased natural gas drilling activities in the area led to the formation of the Triple Divide Watershed Coalition. Each member system has detailed information such as contacts, meeting schedules and rates included in the sidebars located on the right side of this page.
During our initial year, the Coalition met bi-monthly, however beginning in 2013, the members agreed to have quarterly meetings. The meetings are routinely held on the second Wednesday in February, May, August and November. Please contact Charlie Tuttle at: ctuttle@pottercountypa.net. for information on meeting locations or about the Coalition’s activities.
The continued success enjoyed by the Triple Divide Watershed Coalition would not have been possible without the guidance and assistance of several other organizations. The key members of our support group are:
The Potter County Commissioners and the Planning Office have proven invaluable to the Coalition. The Commissioners have provided guidance and have written endorsements in support of grant applications. The Planning Office has acted as sponsor and administrator for recent grant applications. The Potter County website is: http://pottercountypa.org
The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Water Resources Education Network (WREN)
administers annual sourcewater educational grants and maintains a large inventory of educational materials. The WREN Websites: www.sourcewaterpa.org and www.waterwisepa.org.
Pennsylvania Rural Water Association provides water and sewer operator training, as well as a wide range of technical assistance for water and sewer systems, including assistance for sourcewater protection activities. PRWA staff is also responsible for the development of this web page. Visit their web page to see the full spectrum of their programs at: www.prwa.com. Specific contacts are: Joel Jordan, Director of Education: jjordan@prwa.com. ; Jeff Martin, Webmaster: jmartin@prwa.com.
Another invaluable asset to the Triple Divide has been Jim Clark, the Penn State Extension Educator. Jim is our link to all of the resources available from Penn State and has been active in presenting a series of sourcewater protection programs at the local public school districts as well as assisting with grant applications and compiling the water system information in the “neighbors” tab on this web site. Contact information for the local county extension offices are:
Cameron: http://extension.psu.edu/cameron
Elk: http://extension.psu.edu/elk
Jefferson: http://extension.psu.edu/Jefferson
McKean: http://extension.psu.edu/mckean
Potter: http://extension.psu.edu/potter
The Potter County Conservation District has been actively involved with the Coalition from its inception, and has provided consistent technical and administrative support for multiple grants. The district office may be contacted at: www.pottercd.com.
Without question the key person in the formation of this Coalition, as well as several others in Northcentral Pennsylvania, has been Mark Stephens, Licensed Professional Geologist, who is employed in the Williamsport Regional Office of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Mark is responsible for encouraging systems to get involved with sourcewater protection planning and ensuring existing plans are kept current and an continue to be an active element in decision making at the local and county levels. Anyone interested in in getting involved with sourcewater protection planning should contact Mark at: mstephens@pa.gov.
Other organizations that have contributed to the Triple Divide Watershed Coalition include:
Jeff Chaplin, USGS: www.usgs.gov.
Will Hunt, Potter County GIS Dept./Planning Director
John Emerson, Gibson-Thomas Engineering: www.gibson-thomas.com.
Helene Nawrocki, Potter County Education Council: www.pottercountyedcouncil.org.
Rep. Martin Causer State Representative: www.repcauser.com.
Scott Zubek, Tioga County GIS Dept.: www.tiogacountypa.us/departments/gis.
Erica Tomlinson, Tioga Co Conservation District: http://www.tiogacountypa.us/Departments/Conservation_District/Pages/ConservationDistrict.aspx
Kim Bonfardine, Elk County Conservation District: www.co.elk.pa.us/conservation.
Mike Snyder, Pa WARN: www.pawarn.org.
Kerry Miller, Tioga County Planning: http://www.tiogacountypa.us/departments/planning_commission.
Matt Marusiak, Western PA Conservancy: www.waterlandlife.org.
Benchmark Laboratory: www.benchmarkanalyticslabs.com.
Scott Blauvelt, JKLM Energy
The EPA has launched a mobile web site entitled Water Utility Response On-The-Go which provides in-the-field access to information and tools for water operators and their partners for use during an emergency. The address is: www.epa.gov/responseotg.