Using porous asphalt for Columbia's new Riverfront Park, improving a rare wild trout stream in southern Lancaster County and repairing local streams by removing old sediment from colonial mill days are projects included in nearly $1.4 million in state grants.

The four local projects are among 120 around the state that will share $22 million in "Growing Greener" funds announced by Gov. Ed Rendell to restore polluted streams, provide clean water and help prevent flooding.

The local grants went to:

• Columbia Borough, $325,000, for a variety of stormwater best-management practices at Riverfront Park, including porous asphalt and concrete surfaces, vegetated swales and rain gardens.

The Riverfront Park is a linchpin in plans by Columbia and the Lancaster-York Heritage Region to revitalize several riverfront towns in Lancaster and York counties.

The park would provide an attractive gateway to the Susquehanna and may serve as a major trailhead for the proposed Northwest River Trail that would run from Columbia to the Dauphin County line.

• Donegal Chapter of Trout Unlimited, $129,487, for work on Conowingo Creek in Solanco. The money would be used for streambank stabilization, fencing to keep livestock out of the stream and plantings to create a riparian buffer.

The Donegal Chapter of TU has embarked on an ambitious, multi-year project that includes landowners to improve Conowingo Creek, one of a handful of streams in Lancaster County with good-enough water quality to support wild trout in pockets.

By addressing farm runoff with the help of landowners and volunteers, TU thinks it can spread wild trout throughout much of the Conowingo's 34-square-mile drainage.

• Franklin & Marshall College, $516,650, for sediment and nutrient monitoring related to "legacy sediment."

Two F&M professors, Dorothy Merritts and Robert Walter, stunned the scientific community several years ago when they suggested much of Lancaster County's long-standing sediment and nutrient runoff problems stem not from farming but from old mill dams that created large reservoirs of sediment.

It is that easily erodible soil that streams today are now cutting through like soft butter, creating headaches all the way to the Chesapeake Bay.

State and federal environmental agencies are studying the implication of their discovery and this grant underwrites continued research.

• Enterprising Environmental Solutions, $387,500, to remove "legacy sediment" from Big Spring Run in West Lampeter Township.

This project grew out of the F&M research and deals with restoring streams hindered by "legacy sediment." More than a half-mile of the stream would be targeted for restoration work, to be performed by LandStudies, a Lititz environmental consulting firm.

Work to be performed also includes reconnecting the stream to its original channel, creating wetlands and creating a riparian buffer. The Rodale Institute will explore mixing the rich sediment with manure compost for possible sale.

Enterprising Environmental Solutions is a nonprofit public-private partnership, based in Pittsburgh, formed by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

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