In 2007, Pennsylvania stopped funding the EASI partnership, and EASI was forced to withdraw its training, networking, and financial support to the PaSECs. By then, our Centre County chapter had 48 members. EASI-trained Designated Trainers within our membership were there for new volunteers, and a strong sense of comradeship gave cohesion to our group. We petitioned to join ClearWater Conservancy in the same relationship we had enjoyed with RSVP, moving our program administration from RSVP. RSVP still provides us with meeting space and accident insurance coverage. ClearWater Concervancy accepted us as an independent committee, available to conduct biodiversity tests as they need them. In the summer of 2008, our PaSEC entered into a new partnership with PA DEP for collecting samples for E-coli testing in two streams. Our participation in this program continues, expanding to include other streams in Centre County. In April 2009, CCPaSEC entered into a partnership with Nature Abounds, an organization with goals to support surviving PaSEC chapters and provide an online database for all PaSEC data. Nature Abounds now provides CCPaSEC with chemical reagents and equipment as their budget allows. In April 2010, CCPaSEC entered into a partnership with Lock Haven University's Geology Department to provide chemical data and water samples from the Beech Creek watershed area near Marcellus Shale drilling locations for analyses of additional chemical parameters. This data is available through our web site.
Individual members contribute to public education about stream protection through overlapping memberships on township and watershed association boards, school field day training events, and senior education classes. A book by our president, Douglas Macneal, A Penns Creek Companion, owes its existence to the emphasis on outreach of our PaSEC. We look forward to monitoring with increasing effectiveness the non-point sources of pollution in Centre County which continue to damage Chesapeake Bay.
