What’s the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper?
The Youghiogheny Riverkeeper is a program of the Mountain Watershed Association and has expanded MWA’s vision into the larger Youghiogheny River basin. The Yough Riverkeeper is the public advocate for the Youghiogheny River watershed. We use grassroots efforts to defend against further pollution, to improve water quality and to conserve the natural ecology and character of the region.
Protecting the Youghiogheny River and its tributaries is critical to improving the environment and economy of our region. We believe the Yough should remain a ‘living river’ with safe water for drinking, fishing, kayaking, swimming, and habitat.
Our Riverkeeper program is part of a larger organization, Waterkeeper Alliance, which is dedicated to providing a voice for waterways across the world.
What We Do
We conduct E. coli sampling throughout the watershed at popular swimming locations as part of our Swimmable Waters initiative. Some of this data is available on The Swim Guide.
We also sample areas within the Yough River watershed that have been suspected of contamination from various pollutants. If you are concerned about an area that is where pollution is entering the watershed, please reach out.
Youghiogheny River Conservation Plan Part 1: Headwaters to Dunbar Creek is a project that identifies and documents not only the existing resources within the watershed but uses public opinion to identify and address future needs and desires of the watershed. The outcome of this project will be a written report identifying these resources as well as a list of management recommendations to improve the watershed as identified through community outreach. This project is expected to be completed by December 2022.
We host river cleanups at various locations within the Yough River during the spring and fall.
Check out this Story Map to learn about our river cleanups during the spring of 2021.
View our Calendar of Events to learn more about scheduled cleanups.
Nurdles are oat-sized dots of plastic that serve as building blocks for most of the plastic items we buy in stores. Despite their cute name, they are often dumped into our waterways with ugly consequences. Nurdles accumulate toxins and enter the food web as animals mistake them for a meal, and remain intact for centuries. Even worse, it can be difficult to track who exactly is spilling these artificial gems into our rivers, creeks, and lakes, due to their lightweight and miniature makeup, which allows them to be carried fast and far from point sources.
This is why the Mountain Watershed Association (MWA) has started to track nurdle pollution in our waterways, establishing a baseline of testing this fall. A coalition of MWA staff, the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper, and volunteers from Earthworks, BCMAC, and Climate Reality—known collectively as the “nurdle turtles”—set out on the water to begin sampling for macro and micro plastics in ecosystems critical to our communities’ health.
We review and comment on permits for activities including mining and gas well drilling in the watershed. Using grassroots advocacy tools to draw attention to water quality and quantity threats, the Yough Riverkeeper and our Advocacy team pursue stream redesignation petitions and unsuitable-for-mining petitions to seek more protection for our highest quality streams. We network with other groups and organize watershed stakeholders to assist us in these efforts.
Support our Yough Work
If you would like to support the Yough Riverkeeper program please consider making a donation to our Yough Defense Fund. Donations are used to fund our legal work, water monitoring, and other initiatives in the Youghiogheny River watershed.
Your contribution to our Yough Defense Fund will be earmarked to support our Youghiogheny Riverkeeper program and our work in the Youghiogheny River watershed.
Also, please consider becoming a member of Mountain Watershed. Every membership increases our ability to protect, conserve and restore water quality across the Laurel Highlands region.
Riverkeeper is a registered trademark and service mark of Riverkeeper, Inc. and is licensed for use herein.
What can be done next to stop the building of a gas burning elctric generating plant on the GAP trail in Elizabeth Township? I just wrote to 2 Allegheny County Council members with this question.
Barbara W Brandom
[property owner in Allegheny County and Somerset County]