WASHINGTON TWP., Pa. — Surrounded by two dozen men, women and children — each squeezed into black wetsuits with bright orange goggles and snorkels in hand — Michael J. Griffith had one question.
“Is anyone claustrophobic?” asked Griffith, environmental education coordinator and watershed specialist with Berks Nature. “It’s not going to disqualify you. I just need to know ahead of time.”
After Griffith scanned the room, one participant raised their hand, admitting “a little” fear of enclosed, tight spaces.
“If you are a little claustrophobic, that does not mean you can’t do this,” Griffith said. “Just think about snorkeling in the ocean. The bottom is 100, 200, 300 feet away from you.
“Here, the bottom is six inches away from you.”
Griffith last week led “What’s in the Water? Freshwater Snorkeling in the Lehigh River” at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, 8844 Paint Mill Road. The two-hour program, which costs $30 for center members and $35 for non-members, illustrated how encouraging residents to explore their local waterways is also an act of citizen science, tracking the health of the river.
“Sometimes, when I creek snorkel, we see hundreds of critters. Sometimes, when I creek snorkel, we find three or four critters.”Michael J. Griffith, environmental education coordinator and watershed specialist with Berks Nature
“This is nature, so I cannot promise what we will and will not see,” Griffith said. “Sometimes, when I creek snorkel, we see hundreds of critters. Sometimes, when I creek snorkel, we find three or four critters.”
He handed out two papers to each participant, one with pictures of common fish, including chubs, darters, black-nosed dace, common shiners and smallmouth bass. The other outlined benthic macroinvertebrates – bottom-dwelling, backboneless creatures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye.
“These are really important critters,” Griffith said. “These are what we call bioindicators ... If we find a macro that doesn’t like pollution and it’s a four-year-old teenager, we can say the water has been clean for four years.”
After the presentation, and a short walk to the center’s boat ramp, participants began wading into the river.
Polluted, restored and threatened again
The Lehigh River is 109-mile-long tributary of the Delaware River that flows from its headwaters in the Poconos through most of the Lehigh Valley before its confluence with the Delaware in Easton. It supports the drinking water supply of 15 million people.
"The name ‘Lehigh’ is the anglicized version of the Lenni Lenape word ‘Lechewuekink,’ which means ‘where there are forks.’"Lehigh University
“During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Lehigh River was referred to as the ‘West Branch of the Delaware River,’ and the area where it entered the Delaware River was called the ‘Forks of the Delaware,’” according to Lehigh University researchers. “The name ‘Lehigh’ is the anglicized version of the Lenni Lenape word ‘Lechewuekink,’ which means ‘where there are forks.’”
For more than a century, from the early 1820s all the way to 1966, the Lehigh was owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, making it the only privately-owned river in the U.S., according to the university. The next year, a bill was passed to return control to the state.
But, during that time, the river was put to work, acting as the main transportation route for coal from Carbon County to Easton during the anthracite boom. Other industries, like lumber, cement, steel and iron cropped up along its banks, bolstering the local economy while contributing to decreasing water quality.
Efforts have been ongoing to restore the river from past industrial pollution, and researchers now say it “has better water quality today than it has in more than 175 years.”
However, there are new threats to the river as the region’s economy has shifted towards warehousing and logistics. As development continues to overtake green spaces, water quality has been a point of contention.
In April of 2023, the Lehigh River was for the first time included in a national list of endangered rivers. Environmentalists pointed to “poorly planned development,” including warehouses and distribution centers as the cause of putting “the river’s health at risk.”
The year prior, a study of several of the region’s waterways, including the Lehigh River, Little Lehigh Creek, Saucon Creek, Bushkill Creek and Monocacy Creek, found each contaminated with microplastics – pieces less than 5mm long, or smaller than a grain of rice.
But, as threats continue to mount, so do conservation efforts.
In September, nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy bought more than 600 acres of Carbon County forest, motivated by protecting the Lehigh River. Through a partnership with the state Game Commission, the tract was added to State Game Lands 141.
“The permanent protection of these forests is key for sustaining clean, healthy water for drinking, fishing and recreation in [the] surrounding reaches of the Lehigh River,” officials said at the time.
Become a log
For the uninitiated, wading into the Lehigh River can be daunting. Slippery, shifting rocks cover the bottom, which gets deeper towards the middle, as well as in unexpected pockets. The water, pulled continuously south by a steady current, is shockingly cold against the humid summer air.
But, with wetsuits covering the vast majority of skin, and water shoes or old sneakers firmly affixed to feet, it was fairly easy for participants to become acclimated. Slogging through the river slowly, as to not kick up too much sediment to cloud the water, each person found a spot before kneeling, sitting or bending down, submerging their goggle-covered faces to get a view below the surface.
And then, we waited.
“It is nature,” Griffith said. “All the fish may have swam to Philly today. Maybe they’re at a party at the beach. I don't know.”
What’s in the Lehigh River? Here’s a video captured by @graceoddo13 pic.twitter.com/9vuAoRVztN
— Molly Bilinski, artisanal sentence crafter (@MollyBilinski) July 3, 2024
Lessons from Griffith’s presentation were based in common sense and easy to remember. He was trained by Keith Williams, a York County-based freshwater underwater naturalist who literally wrote the book on the topic — actually, two books.
First, Williams published “Snorkelhead, Adventures in River Snorkeling” in 2016, followed by “Snorkeling Rivers and Streams an Aquatic Guide to Underwater Discovery and Adventure,” in 2020.
“We're going to kick up dirt,” Griffith said. “If somebody in front of you kicks up dirt, don’t get mad. Don't yell. It's going to happen. So, just sit there and let the water go by. It'll clear out in front of you.”
In addition to keeping a safe depth in the water — no deeper than comfortable standing — he also provided some helpful tips, including patience.
If you lay in the water for 10 minutes and don’t move, guess what you become — a log.Michael J. Griffith, environmental education coordinator and watershed specialist with Berks Nature
“The slower you move and the stiller you are, the better it’ll be,” he said, asking participants to picture a log floating in a creek. “If you lay in the water for 10 minutes and don’t move, guess what you become — a log.
“Guess what the fish is going to do? The fish is going to hide and swim under you.”
How cool!! @graceoddo13 captured both these amazing clips from @LehighGapNature’s “What's in the Water? — Freshwater Snorkeling in the Lehigh River” with Berks Nature. pic.twitter.com/PzhOa4lCev
— Molly Bilinski, artisanal sentence crafter (@MollyBilinski) July 3, 2024
During the hour-long snorkeling session, there were several exclamations of “I see one!” or “There’s one here!” as participants explored the underwater ecosystem of the river. Crawfish and darters and a handful of other creatures were also spotted.
A juvenile bald eagle soared over the group just as several were taking a break, setting their sights above instead of below.
“I think it’s one of the best programs that we run. It’s a lot of fun,” Griffiths said. “And, when else can you get together with 24 other penguins to have fun in a creek?”
