In the last 10 years, pollution has declined: sediment by 9 percent, phosphorus by 10 percent, and nitrogen by 47 percent.
"It's a very good illustration of what it's going to take across the entire Chesapeake watershed," says the bay program's Batiuk.
Officials and advocates know it's not good enough.
"It took probably 50 to 100 years to cut all the trees down, to do the farming. Now we're putting houses on," says Matt Kofroth, a watershed specialist with the conservation district.
"We can't expect to just plant trees and walk away."
So they're keeping at it.
They take fifth graders on an annual tour of the watershed, priming the next generation for all the things it will have to do to take care of the local stream.
That's because, in the end, they've learned that they're not improving Lititz Run for a bay miles away.
Their reward comes in driving along and seeing anglers like Greg Wilson fishing in it. Or knowing that 10-year-olds like Matt Baum now wade in it. Or having a state senator take his morning walk along it.
"It's good for the bay, but we did it for ourselves," Wilson says. "We live here, and we want to fish here. It's our neighborhood."
A color slide show featuring Lititz Run and the efforts to clean up the bay is at http://go.philly.
com/chesapeake
INSIDE
A look at the Susquehanna watershed and the impact of Pennsylvania's pollution on the Chesapeake. Graphic, A13.
Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers
at 215-854-5147 or sbauers@phillynews.com.
