Credit Kelly Tunney / WPSU Plastic permeates Pennsylvania’s waterways, according to a study released Wednesday by PennEnvironment’s Research & Policy Center. The environmental organization conducted a survey to study the presence of microplastics — pieces of plastic debris less than 5 millimeters long, often too tiny to be caught by water-filtration systems — in the state’s rivers, creeks, and streams. Turns out, microplastics are everywhere. Researchers took 315 samples from 53 bodies of water throughout the commonwealth over the course of 2020, including the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers in western Pennsylvania; the Susquehanna River and Conodoguinet Creek near Harrisburg; the Spring Creek, Cedar, and Slab Cabin runs in the State College area, and the Schuylkill and lower Delaware rivers and the Wissahickon, Neshaminy, Tookany, and Tohickon creeks around the Philadelphia region.