When Emily Mallisee first joined the Municipality of Murrysville as an engineering technician, one of the first projects she worked on was creating a riparian buffer along the headwaters of Steele’s Run.

Steele’s Run is one of two high-quality watersheds in the town — Haymaker’s Run is the other — and the buffer of trees and additional vegetation will help protect both the stream and the wildlife that calls it home.

“It’s something we want to be involved in, and folks downstream are benefiting from it as well,” Mallisee said. “It’s literally a ‘trickle-down’ effect.”

That effect also caught the eye of the Westmoreland Conservation District, which has named Murrysville its 2020 J. Roy Houston Conservation Partnership Award winner.

The award recipient is chosen by a committee of Conservation District staff and associate directors.

“This year, Murrysville rose the top of the list, which they’ve been on for several years,” said Greg Phillips, the district’s manager and CEO. “They’ve worked with the district since 1983 on things like erosion control and storm water work.”

Mallisee said municipal staff partnered with the district on several recent projects.

“We worked together on a dirt-and-gravel low-volume road project completed last year at Morosini Farm Court,” she said. “That was a way to correct drainage. The conservation district also helped us out with a half-dozen detention pond retrofits as well.”

Mallisee said the municipality likely will retrofit about a dozen more ponds in areas including Summerville Estates, Mallard Landing, Ruby Court, Les Chateaux, Bartlett Court, Fair Oaks Manor, Heritage Estates, Buena Vista, Westmoreland Farms, Windbrook Road, Wilson Road and Lyons Run Estates. The retrofits will allow the ponds to drain more slowly, making storm water runoff issues less likely.

“That’s been successfully duplicated in other municipalities as well,” Phillips said. “We’re working with Hempfield now, but Murrysville was one of the first municipalities to work with us on that.”

Top of the list for Phillips, however, is the Westmoreland Heritage Trail. Murrysville officials worked with the conservation district and the Regional Trail Corp. in its development and, in 2017, created a trail head along William Penn Highway with parking and information for trail users.

Phillips also praised the town’s approach to storm water management, which generates regular complaints for both local governments and the conservation districts throughout Pennsylvania.

“They’re careful not to over-develop,” Phillips said. “They have lots of green space, they have lots of parks.”

Mallisee said having a community supportive of “green” efforts is very helpful.

“People in Murrysville are environmentally conscious, which is really great,” she said.

The award itself is named for Murrysville native J. Roy Houston.

“Roy grew up in Murrysville when it was just a patch of houses along William Penn Highway in Franklin Township,” Phillips said. “He served on our board for 40 years, so it’s nice in a way to see the award going ‘back home’ to Murrysville.”

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