rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
CANTON — Some people are used to clean water and think nothing of it, but Canton Borough resident Michelle Holton sees it as a luxury, considering she has not had clean water for weeks.
Michelle bought her property in 1991 and opened her businesses, Michele’z Nail’z & Doo’z, next to her home in 2004.
Though the Springbrook Creek drainage issue has been a concern of Holton’s for more than 20 years now, she was recently diagnosed with Cryptosporidiosis, a disease that causes watery diarrhea, fever and vomiting and can be deadly to some people.
It is caused by microscopic germs—parasites called Cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidium, or “Crypto” for short, can be found in water, food, soil or on surfaces or dirty hands that have been contaminated with the feces of humans or animals infected with the parasite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During 2001–2010, Crypto was the leading cause of waterborne disease outbreaks, linked to recreational water in the United States. The parasite is found in every region of the United States and throughout the world.
Acting as an advocate for not just herself, but her neighbors on Lycoming Street, Holton is trying to find resources and grants to help the issues Lycoming Street is facing every time there is a huge rain fall, or snow melting.
“We had a drought this summer, but I had to keep busting up beaver dams by hand, just so I could mow my yard and not have my well water flooded with stagnant water,” said Holton. “The creek has been eroding for years.”
Holton is on town Sewer but not town water as it stops down the road.
For as long as she can remember, the area out back of her home has been open to flooding issues, partially due to beavers creating dams and blocking water access to Springbrook Creek.
“I used to be able to walk to what was Flavorland, but is now Knucklehead’s Cafe on a short, 2x4 board in 1990’s,” said Holton.
The result is flooding the surrounding areas on Lycoming Street, and partially on Route 14 coming into Canton from Grover.
“Now, you would drown trying to cross that as a board wouldn’t work. You would need a bridge. Spingbrook Creek is out of original banks therefore the land where my well is now has become a health issue as well,” said Holton.
At the last Canton Borough meeting, Holton spoke about her concerns with the flooding issues on Lycoming Street and asked the council to help her and her neighbors with starting a watershed committee.
A watershed is a drainage basin where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water.
A watershed committee (WMC) mission is to recommend, develop, and conduct activities to advance the understanding, planning, implementation, and use of watershed management tools and techniques to more effectively preserve and enhance the global (one) water environment.
She also mentioned that she spoke to Joe Quatrini, watershed specialist from the Bradford County Conservation District, and he urged Michelle to reach out to her local municipalities as they would have much more clout in applying for a grant than just a local home owner and business owner. He told her to ask them to help her apply for a “Growing Greener” grant, which should be announced sometime this spring.
For any grant, the more support you have from local agencies, the better,” said Quatrini.
Recently, the Bradford County Watershed Initiative was awarded 325,000 to enable the county to complete up to 10 stream bank stabilization projects and reduce approximately 1,000 tons of sediment, 1,000 pounds of phosphorus, and 2,500 pounds of nitrogen each year. She is in hopes to secure funding for this issue and get it resolved as quickly as possible.
Not only is Michelle a land owner, her business is also right beside her house.
The Bradford County Commissioners and Conservation District created the County Stream Initiative Program in 2016 for residents and businesses that are seeking assistance in addressing stream erosion problems. Applications will be taken at the Conservation District office when the application period is open.
To be considered eligible, the stream must be threatening a structure (i.e. imminent danger to a home, business, utility, etc.) Conservation District staff will visit each site to collect preliminary data and rank projects for the limited funding.
Holton spoke during a borough session with Senator Gene Yaw on the topic in 2017, but the conversation did not go much further than that.
PENNDOT did dig out the bridge by what is now the Dollar General, and it did help her for a couple years.
This time, Holton says she’s ready to take action and do whatever means necessary to fix the problem. Right now, the challenge is to write the grant and secure funding to hopefully begin a watershed committee and begin the process of re-routing the stream.
After a meeting Monday evening, Holton found out Canton Township will follow in the footsteps of Canton Borough, who recently told her they would help with any grant application she works on.
Any information Holton could use to help her successfully address this issue, she would be grateful for.