The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Conservation (DEP) has determined the Shohola Creek upgrade petition meets the criteria for review by their Environmental Quality Board, paving the way for the petition to be formally considered.

The petition by Grace Hatton was submitted for consideration at the EQB’s June 16 meeting. According to Mark Carmen, the Communications Coordinator for DEP’s Northeast Regional office, acceptance of the petition is the first phase of the redesignation procedure. With that done, the regional office will now begin the task of conducting field research, doing water sampling, and evaluating potential development impacts to the site. The EQB will then have the information necessary to decide whether the creek qualifies for upgrade.

Along with the Blooming Grove Board of Supervisors, PCCD wrote a letter in support of Hatton’s petition to upgrade Shohola Creek, including Lake Shohola and Shohola Falls, to a designation of Exceptional Value (EV) as part of an effort to protect it from a developer who wants to put approximately 1 million square feet — or about 25 acres — of land under three roofs on a tract of land known as SGL (State Game Lands) 180. 

According to Hatton’s petition, the two largest of the three waterfowl propagation areas in the PA Game Commission Northeast Region are in Lake Shohola. At this time there are two nesting pairs of bald eagles and one pair of osprey in the propagation areas. Further, Lake Shohola is also listed as Important Bird Area 61. She cites a web listing as proof: http://pa.audubon.org/IBA_Consplans/IBA61.pdf.

The petition also stresses that the EV classification does not stop development, but does insure that development proceed in a responsible way that does not degrade the water quality. Given sufficiently important socio-economic reasons, a HQ stream can be degraded, but an EV stream cannot. The Shohola Creek in this area is already classified as a High Quality – Cold Water Fishery (HQ-CWF.)

The petition further states that the entire watershed above SGL 180 is within Blooming Grove Township and there are numerous designated “natural areas” such as Bruce Lake, that enjoy special protection status and are home to rare plants. Some of the watershed is also in the Delaware State Forest.

The stream redesignation handbook, http://www.lccd.org/watershed/Stream_Redesignation.pdf, indicates that when a stream is classified HQ and is located in a state gamelands and includes a waterfowl propagation area, at the very least the area around the waterfowl propagation area would qualify for an upgrade to EV.

According to Carmen, its very hard to predict how long it may be until a decision on the matter is made, but it could be months before Harrisburg gets all the information needed, reviews it, and decides whether or not to approve the redesignation.