Mark Diller, who farms the land, initiated the project. Mount Rock Spring Creek is about 4.5 miles long. That agricultural activity has led to decreased water quality. As part of the project, the watershed association has been monitoring the stream in the vicinity of the Clouse farm, where increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus have been found in the stream. When the project is complete, those levels should decrease.
Agriculture is thought to be major contributor of non-point pollution.
The farmer will no longer have to fight the stream as it tries to escape from its unnatural channel and the public will gain purer water by the elimination of uncontrolled cow access to the stream. The project uses a relatively new method to restore the creek to its natural channel. Jerry Longenecker, with Skelly and Loy, the engineers for the project, says traditionally stream channels were restored with an unvarying, standardized width and were lined with rubblelike stone known as riprap. Also, native rock is built into the stream channel to protect banks. The facility will be about 48,000 square feet and will be on a site of about 8.7 acres.