Bully for you Valley Forge TU

It is great to see TU chapters flex their muscle within their local communities in a way that benefits fish and people, too. Such is the case of the Valley Forge Chapter in Pennsylvania.  I met a bunch of their leaders early this spring, and they took me on a tour of Valley Creek.

Valley Creek, which flows through Valley Forge National Park, where George Washington and the continental army camped, is an urban trout gem. Owen Owens, a former chapter President told me that state officials once shocked up a nearly 30" brown trout. Now, before you apply the angler's 50 percent-reduction-rule, know that Owen is an ordained minister. 

Valley Creek has its challenges. Like most urban rivers, stormwater run-off is a problem. More challenging still was the fact that a sewage main had ruptured three times over the past two years dumping an estimated 21 million gallons of raw sewage into the Exceptional Value, Class A wild trout stream which is a trubutary of the Schuylkill River. 

Chapter leaders met with officials from Tredyffrin Township to no avail. Former chapter President, Pete Goodman, who has fished Valley Creek for over 40 years said, "After two years of increasingly severe sewage pipeline breaks, no emergency response plan other than ‘dump the sewage in the creek,’ and no plan to replace this aging pipeline, Trout Unlimited" felt compelled to bring legal action. 

Working with PennEnvironment and the National Environmental Law Center, the Valley Forge chapter sent a 60 day notice to Tredyffrin Township threatening to sue under the aegis of the Clean Water Act. On day 56, Pennsylvania DEP obtained a court-ordered consent decree forcing the township to fix and replace the faulty pipes. The decree also fined the Township over $100,000 a portion of which will be used for stream rehabilitation.

Goodman said "we have once again fulfilled our role as environmental stewards by helping to drive this outcome.”

Litigation is always an action of last resort for TU. We try to work collaboratively with people, especially in our local communities, but 21 million gallons of raw sewage is 21 million gallons of raw sewage. Bully for you Valley Forge TU!