Clean and Abundant Water for Newtown!!! What is the Pootatuck watershed? The local watershed comprises half of Newtown’s land area. In addition, there are seven smaller watersheds in Newtown, all of which benefit from our work. Within these watersheds the underlying aquifers provide our public and private water supplies. The ground and surface waters provide drinking water, water for agriculture, public recreation, economic development and critical wildlife habitat. These assets sustain our community, quality of life, and Newtown’s future. While we benefit from water, development and human activities damage and deplete it. The hydrologic cycle depends on an interaction of land, air and water. This cycle is impacted by impervious surfaces (paved roads, roofs), deforestation, erosion and contamination by wastes and chemicals. Every building, road, parking lot, septic tank, agricultural activity and lawn can impact and may interrupt natural filtering that recharges groundwater supplies and stream flows. What you can do...
- Reduce stormwater runoff by directing roof drains into a rain garden, grade driveways to drain in planting beds or lawn and minimizing impervious surfaces.
- Avoid using synthetic pesticides/herbicides.
- Dispose of pharmaceuticals and household chemicals responsibly.
- Maintain your septic system with regular clean outs and proper use.
- Become a Citizen Watchdog--- report chemical spills, fish kills and abuse of streams and lakes
Working Hard to Protect Your Water
PWA needs your support to continue these vital projects to ensure safe, clean water. Water quality monitoring. For 9 years we have monitored the water quality of streams and the river within the Pootatuck Watershed. This effort has involved partner organizations, including the Town of Newtown, Trout Unlimited and Newtown Forest Association. We’ve measured temperature, conductivity, turbidity, phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate, E. coli and aquatic insect life. Recently we received a grant enabling us to create a new database which greatly enhances our ability to analyze data and take steps to investigate problem areas. Stream improvements, under the leadership of partner Trout Unlimited, and several projects have been undertaken to stabilize stream banks and improve them so that less runoff enters the waterways. These efforts have involved many volunteers. Projects include the Pootatuck and several locations of Deep Brook, including a section which flows through Dickinson Park. Our volunteers planted hundreds of herbaceous plants and trees along these brooks, as well as performed mitigation measures within the streams. Some of these efforts also involved personnel and funding from the National Soil Conservation Service and were made possible by generous grants from Iroquois Gas Pipeline and the Newtown Tree Project. Film We produced the film Our Sole Source, which provides essential information about our local situation and useful everywhere. View it at www.pootatuckwatershed.org under the Education tab. It is available for screening in classrooms and local/regional non-profits. Outreach In a special partnership with General Motors’ GREEN program and Earth Force, plans are underway to work with Reed Intermediate and St. Rose schools to involve them in water quality study and activities. Earth Force staff will be working with PWA and students to learn about water study and create ways to work within Newtown on needed improvements. Website We recently benefited from the generous donation of a former board member to have our website refurbished, and we are proud of the result. However, we need to continuously upgrade the website and keep it up to date. We welcome web-savvy volunteers to help with this endeavor.
