​The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (MSRKA) Board of Directors, on Jan. 16, 2023, elected Marissa Crames, of Selinsgrove, as its new board president, joining returning Vice President Dr. Joseph Simons III, of Kingston, newly elected treasurer Kelly Caudle, of Winfield, and first-time board co-secretaries Morgan Thomas and Danielle Tryon as officers for 2023.

“It has been my honor to serve as MSRKA president. I feel like it's ‘my baby!’” said outgoing Board President Kathy Snavely, who has served on the association’s board since its inception in 2015. “I know it is in good hands with our new officers and board moving forward.”

Crames grew up in Long Island, NY. She spent her summers in the Shawangunk Mountains of upstate NY. During these times she developed a deep love for all things wild and free. After graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Business, she relocated to central Pennsylvania.

When moving to Lewisburg in 2013, Bucknell University Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences Andrew Stuhl noticed indications of the historical flooding of Hurricane Agnes which happened decades before.

“It was hard to miss all the historical markers that showed flood levels and mentioned lives lost in the flooding,” he said. “As I talked to people in the community to get to know them, they would mention Agnes in casual conversation, talking about something that happened to them right after the flood, or how things in town looked completely different before the flood.”
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Stuhl had earned his PhD in environmental history and soon was at the center of a massive study looking at Agnes’ impacts on the region 50 years after the June 1972 event.

Riverkeeper's note: This column was written as the second in a two-part story package about a Superfund site in Williamsport. Check out the first post with details of this site by clicking here.

According to philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

That is one of the major fears of Katie Caputo, who recently stumbled onto information about a Superfund pollution site in Williamsport that happened decades ago and very few people remember today.

“More than 30 years had passed since the remedial action plan took effect and the decades seem to have eroded common knowledge of the site,” she shared after researching about AVCO Lycoming, a site where dangerous levels of potentially carcinogenic solvents have infiltrated the groundwater.

​Riverkeeper's note: This is the first in a two-part story package on Superfund sites in our watershed. Check out Riverkeeper John Zaktansky's column on important lessons to learn from these sites by clicking here.

While searching online for various permits, rules and applications related to her outdoor guide service, Roambler.com, South Williamsport resident Katie Caputo stumbled across a document about pollution related to a local superfund site she knew nothing about.

“I was intrigued by the title, so I began reading,” she said. “The truth is, it felt like I was reading something I wasn’t supposed to find. It also felt like I was reading something I should have already known about.”

As she read over the 152-page report about the site and remediation efforts that continue to this day, Caputo was left with numerous questions and concerns.

​Growing up in the “boonies” of Elk County, Travis Wingard savored every moment spent outside.

“I was a Boy Scout, worked on camp staffs. I hunted and I fished,” he said. “Everything seemed to revolve around living and playing in the outdoors.”

However, after majoring in English and pursuing a teaching career where jobs dried up faster than expected, Wingard found himself working in local factories to make ends meet and regretting that he didn’t pursue something that focused on his love of our outdoor resources.

“You look back and kind of want to kick yourself, saying ‘Oh, I should have joined DCNR or the DEP and been out in the field,’” he said. “That is where I was really having a lot of fun.”

​As Angie Tuttle paddled and fished her way down the North Branch of the Susquehanna River from Howland Preserve to Riverside Park in Tunkhannock, she had a feeling something was watching her and following along.

“I just kept fishing and floating and then I heard cracking branches up on the bank,” she said. “I looked and saw a tiny little fox face looking around a tree at me! That little fox followed me for a while and kept me company.”

As we wrap up the final month of 2022, it is impossible to reflect on the past year as the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper without a great deal ​of excitement and gratitude. 

While we remain a small nonprofit organization in the middle of a massive 11,000-square-mile watershed facing a wide variety of clean-water threats, the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (MSRKA) continues to be intentional in its growth while maintaining its mission to promote and protect the health and vibrancy of the Susquehanna River, its tributaries and the life that depends on these aquatic resources.

Like white tufts of shaving cream floating atop bathwater toward a nearby drain, seemingly bright-white patches of foam have been a regular early morning sight on the lower Penns Creek lately.

In a May 2020 blog post, we talked about foams on waterways and how to tell when they are naturally occurring vs. when they could be a sign of pollution.

Usually, foams that have a dirty look and an earthy or fishy smell can typically be connected with natural organic matter such as fats, lipids and deteriorating leaf matter getting whipped up in rapids much like egg whites can be whipped into stiff peaks of frothy meringue.