The Steinman Foundation and Little Conestoga Creek Foundation, working with public and private partners, have launched a project to rejuvenate about 2.5 miles of the impaired Little Conestoga Creek in what will be one of the largest restorative efforts of its kind in Lancaster County. The $18 million project will generate substantial environmental and recreational benefits to the public, including miles of trails that will link hikers and bicyclists to parks, entertainment venues, shopping and essential services in Lancaster city and its immediate suburbs. 

The Project at a Glance

The purpose of the Blue/Green Corridor Project is to enhance the Little Conestoga’s capacity; reduce levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, ingredients in commercial fertilizer that starve the water of oxygen and degrade the ecosystems downstream including the Chesapeake Bay; and to increase variety of healthy plant and animal life in the waterway. That’s the “blue” part of the Blue/Green Corridor Project.

The project will also create a 2.7-mile, non-motorized, ADA-accessible, public trail along the Little Conestoga Creek that will connect Marietta Avenue with Noel Dorwart Park, Franklin & Marshall College’s Baker Campus, The Crossings, Long’s Park, Penn Medicine Lancaster General’s Health Campus and Park City Center. That’s the “green” part of the Blue/Green Corridor Project.

What We’re Doing and Why

At the heart of the Blue/Green Corridor Project is the excavation of more than a million pounds of “legacy sediment” from the Little Conestoga, a buildup of eroded soils that have washed onto the natural creek bed over generations and now impair the waterway’s capacity to contain flood waters. Removing that sediment will improve the capacity of the floodplain and potentially reduce the impact of, and mitigate, the damage caused by flooding on the adjoining properties and those downstream.   

That legacy sediment also holds nitrogen and phosphorous, which are harmful to the ecosystem downstream to the Conestoga and Susquehanna rivers and Chesapeake Bay. Removing the sediment, and those nutrients, has the potential to help Lancaster County municipalities reduce water pollution as mandated by the federal government. Our consultants have estimated that the project will remove 940 pounds of phosphorous and 4,755 pounds of nitrogen from these 2.5 miles of the Little Conestoga Creek , no longer to be carried downstream. 

It is our hope that the Blue/Green Corridor Project will catalyze restoration projects elsewhere within the creek’s watershed.