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Division of Environmental Services |
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The Division of Environmental Services (DES) was first created in 1971.
The principle duties of the Division at that time were to review the
potential impacts of PennDOT projects and work with various sporstmen's
clubs and other conservation organizations to plan and construct fish
habitat improvement projects. Today we still review transportation
projects and assist local groups with the construction of fish habitat
improvement devices. However, we now do much more. The Division is
organized in two distinct program areas. One is our "proactive program"
in which our staff work with expert scientists and engineers from a
variety of disciplines to insure that the aquatic resources (both game
and nongame) which live in all of our Commonwealth waters remain
protected. Our staff review thousands of permit applications every year.
We also review environmental laws and regulations that could have an
impact on our jurisdictional species or their habitats and routinely
comment on water quality, habitat and instream flow protection issues.
We also advise other internal PFBC program areas about environmental
issues.
The second part of the program, the "reactive part," involves staff
biologists assisting law enforcement agencies including our own PFBC
Bureau of Law Enforcement and the PA Attorney General's Office, PA DEP,
U.S. EPA and Department of Justice and others in responding to water
pollution and habitat disturbances throughout the Commonwealth. We
commonly function as expert witnesses in criminal, civil and
administrative court hearings. These cases range from major water
pollution on large rivers involving major fish kills to channelizing the
headwaters of small brook trout streams or wetlands. Environmental Services Organization:
- Aquatic Resources Section - works
with DEP and the River Basin Commission staff to insure that water
is allocated appropriately since fish and aquatic life also depend
upon water to survive. They review permit applications to mine coal
and quarry limestone and work directly with DEP District Mining
Operations on preventing impacts to streams and wetlands from coal
and non-coal mining activities. We coordinate site reviews of state
and federal Superfund Clean-up sites with a variety of agencies and
also issue permits for Lake and Pond drawdowns, the appliction of
herbicides and the use of grass carp to control aquatic vegetation.
- Natural Diversity Section - deals
with the wide variety of issues related to nongame species of fish,
aquatic invertebrates and herptiles. They are responsible for
tracking information on endangered, threatened and rare animals
under the PFBC's jurisdiction and managing efforts to restore these
species to their native ranges.
- Watershed Analysis Section -
reviews transportation project impacts, assist DEP with assessing
the health of our waters, and provide valuable comment to PA DEP
whenever streams and wetlands are encroached upon by some form of
development.
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Aquatic Resources |
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Aquatic Plant Control |
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 Regulates aquatic plant control methods through various permits that are required. A
joint PFBC/DEP Permit for an Algicide, Herbicide or Fish Control
Chemical in Waters of the Commonwealth is required to use pesticides to
control plants or fish. A Triploid Grass Carp Pond Stocking Permit must
be obtained to introduce these sterile, plant-eating fish into public or
private waters.
 Related Forms
- Aquatic Herbicide/Algicide
- Triploid Grass Carp Permit
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Draw down |
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 A PFBC/DEP Permit to Draw Off Water
From Impoundments (Drawdown Permit) must be obtained to lower pools
of impoundments for activities regulated by other state permits or for
any impoundment larger than 1 surface acre. Activities requiring draw
down may include construction, maintenance or biological manipulation.
PFBC’s duty is to minimize impacts on fish, aquatic life and
recreational fishing and boating.Related
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Federal Superfund Sites |
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 The PFBC interacts with the U. S. EPA
and other agencies to promote an effective clean-up of contaminated
sites that affect aquatic environments like Spring Creek, Centre County
and Valley Creek, Chester County. The PFBC pursues damage claims to
restore resources and recreation affected by contamination from
Superfund Sites.Related
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Hydropower |
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 The PFBC reviews and comments on all
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Hydropower License applications.
This involves coordination of all agency input to the process and
typically includes efforts to minimize turbine mortality of fish,
impacts related to water level and flow manipulation, and water quality
impacts. Efforts are typically made to enhance recreational access to
affected waters. |
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Instream Flow Protection |
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 The PFBC reviews all Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection, Susquehanna River Basin
Commission, and Delaware River Basin Commission surface and groundwater
permit applications. The agency recommends permit conditions to these
agencies that will serve to prevent impacts to fish and other aquatic
life habitat caused by water withdrawals for municipal, industrial,
recreational and agricultural purposes. The PFBC serves on various
interagency and interstate committees involved with water management.
The PFBC is a charter member of the Instream Flow Council, an
international organization whose mission is to help state, provincial
fish and wildlife management agencies establish, maintain and administer
effective programs for protection of instream flows for aquatic
resources.Related Pages
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Clean Water Act Section 316(a) thermal variances |
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 Section 316(a) of the Clean Water Act permits variances from state water quality
temperature standards if these variances will assure the “protection and
propagation of a balanced, indigenous population of shellfish, fish, and
wildlife in and on that body of water. The PFBC works closely with DEP
in the evaluation of applications for such variances under the National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. |
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Clean Water Act Section 316(b) review |
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Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires that industrial cooling
water intake structures reflect the “best technology available for
minimizing environmental impact. The PFBC works closely with DEP in the
implementation of this section of the Clean Water Act for all relevant
cooling water withdrawals in Pennsylvania with the goal of minimizing
impacts to aquatic life that can be drawn into cooling water intakes and
injured or killed. |
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Mining |
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- Through a memorandum of understanding with the Pennsylvania DEP
Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, the PFBC reviews all DEP Coal and
Non-Coal Mine Drainage applications. The agency works closely with
this Bureau, the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, and the
United States Office of Surface Mining to prevent and minimize
adverse impacts related to mining. The PFBC regularly conducts
biological stream surveys to evaluate the potential impact of
proposed mines, evaluate mine drainage abatement projects, and
assists in perennial stream determinations.
- Watershed Evaluation for Mine Drainage abatement projects
through aquatic biological stream evaluations.
- Assist Pa. DEP Bureaus of Mining and Reclamation and Abandoned
Mine Reclamation in stream and wetland evaluations to insure
protection or enhancement of aquatic resources
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Natural Diversity
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Index Pages |
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Related Permits - all in PDF
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Watershed Analysis
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Acid Deposition |
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 The burning of fossil fuels from
electrical power plants, automobiles, and other industries emit sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide gases into our atmosphere, where they are
chemically transformed and deposited back on the landscape as either wet
or dry deposition. The deposition from these processes is acidic and may
cause adverse conditions to aquatic resources. Unfortunately,
Pennsylvania receives some of the highest concentrations of recorded
acid deposition in the nation. The PFBC keeps informed with current acid
deposition trends and provides comments to any State or Federal
legislation that may impact emission rates. Guidance and education is
also provided to watershed or sportsmen organizations that want to
sponsor projects to help neutralize the impacts of acid deposition
within affected waterways. |
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Agricultural |
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 The PFBC is a member of the Agricultural State
Technical Committee, which in part reviews and coordinates the USDA Farm
Bill Conservation Programs in Pennsylvania. Current farm bill programs
within the Commonwealth include: Agricultural Management Assistance,
Conservation Reserve, Conservation Reserve Enhancement, Conservation
Security, Environmental Quality Incentives, Farm Ranchland Protection,
Forest Land Enhancement, Grassland Reserve, Wildlife Habitat Incentive
and the Wetland Reserve Programs. All of these programs and other
funding sources such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Ducks
Unlimited provide for important conservation practices on the farm and
ultimately improves the quality of our aquatic resources. |
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Erosion and Sedimentation |
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 Sediment, soil particles suspended in water
and ultimately deposited in waterways, is widely recognized as a
pollutant with devastating aquatic resource impacts. Excessive turbidity
disrupts fishing and boating opportunities, but moreover results in
long-term detriment to food chain production and fish spawning.
Understandably, the PFBC values its opportunity to cooperate with the
Department of Environmental Protection and County Conservation Districts
in efforts to minimize sediment pollution through their permitting of
earthmoving activities as well as education and compliance programs.
Guidance is also provided to the agency’s Bureau of Law Enforcement
regarding sediment pollution violations of the Fish and Boat Code. |
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Natural Stream Channel Design |
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 Through membership on the Keystone Stream
Team, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission - Division of
Environmental Services has provided agency expertise on various aspects
of natural stream channel design. With particular emphasis on
potentially streamlining the state and Federal permitting processes, the
Division actively participated in development of the “Guidelines for
Natural Stream Channel Design for Pennsylvania Waterways,” an aid to
project planners and reviewers now available on the
Canaan Valley Institute’s website. |
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Landfills |
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 Review municipal, residual, and hazardous
landfill applications and provide the Department of Environmental
Protection comments and recommendations that would encourage the
protection, conservation and enhancement of any aquatic resource that
may be potentially impacted with the proposed activity. |
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Transportation Projects |
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 The PFBC reviews and comments on all proposed
highway, airport and mass-transit projects. The primary objective of
these reviews is to avoid, minimize, and compensate for any potential
aquatic resource impacts that may be associated with the respective
public works project. Fishing and boating opportunities are often
enhanced within the project area as a result of efforts to compensate
for project impacts. The PFBC works closely with other Federal and State
resource agencies as these projects move through the environmental
review process and also provide the transportation agencies with
technical guidance and training on our aquatic resources. |
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Recommended Culvert Designs for Fish Passage in PA - all in PDF
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Waterway and Wetland Encroachments |
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 The PFBC assists both the
Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers
with their aquatic resource protection regulatory programs by actively
reviewing and commenting on permit applications for various types of
encroachments on streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. We focus
our efforts to help avoid associated negative impacts on not only fish
and their habitats but also boating use. Examples of potential
encroachments range from stream channelization to road and utility
crossings to wetland fill for development. Assistance with coordination
of day-to-day administrative, policy, and regulatory change issues among
the resource agencies is another function of the Division in this regard
and guidance is also provided to them as well as to the PFBC Bureau of
Law Enforcement in resolving violations of waterway disturbance permit
requirements. |
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Water Quality Monitoring |
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 Water quality in Pennsylvania can be measured or
assessed using a variety of methodologies. The PFBC is a cooperating
partner in a Department of Environmental Protection initiated effort to
determine stream health of Pennsylvania’s 83,000 miles of streams and
rivers. The Pennsylvania
State-wide Surface Waters Assessment Program was implemented in 1997
to evaluate water quality by sampling aquatic insect communities and
stream habitat to determine impaired or non-impaired conditions. Aquatic
insects are useful indicators of stream quality for several reasons.
Aquatic insects are relatively easy to collect by one biologist and
several sites can be assessed per day making aquatic insect sampling
very cost-effective.
 Aquatic insects have evolved and adapted to a wide range
of environmental conditions. They are a very diverse part of the aquatic
community, that is, there are many different species that inhabit
virtually every niche in both flowing and impounded water. When a
particular family of aquatic insects is missing from the stream
community, this often signals a negative impact to the stream
environment. To learn more about stream monitoring and sampling
techniques, the following link,
EPA Monitoring and
Assessing Water Quality Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for Use in Streams
and Wadeable Rivers, can provide additional information. |
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RELATED PAGES |
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RELATED DOCUMENTS |
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