DEP announces funding for water cleanup projects

Several water cleanup projects across the region are expected to begin this year, thanks to the Growing Greener Plus grants awarded last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The DEP announce Dec. 30 that $34 million will fund 149 clean water projects across the state, with $2.7 million of that designated to the southwestern region.
“Growing Greener awardees help keep Pennsylvania clean,” DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said in a news release. “It is imperative that communities in Pennsylvania receive the necessary funding to reduce pollutants in area waterways.”
Washington County
Three of the projects are planned for Washington County. The Washington County Conservation District was awarded $467,295 to improve water quality in the Ten Mile Creek watershed in West Bethlehem Township.
Todd Thornburg, district manager for the WCCD, said the grant will be used to improve agricultural best management practices along 7,300 feet of stream frontage near the headwaters of the creek.
Thornburg said the plan is to put up fencing on either side of the stream and include a designated area for animals and wildlife to cross it. He said this will help prevent mud and sediment from getting into the headwaters and lead to “better water quality before it gets down into the Ten Mile Creek.”
The second Washington County project will take place along Chartiers Creek in North Franklin Township. Erin Dinch, the township’s director of planning and development, said the project, funded at $65,000, will take place on township-owned property in the valley below Franklin Farms Road.
“There’s a lot of erosion going on in that part of the creek,” she said. “We’ll be cutting back the stream banks and reinforcing them with plantings.”
Dinch said the area is mostly “wild” park property, 89 acres total, which the township hopes to further develop in years to come. Dinch said there is a flooding problem there, but “luckily” it doesn’t often reach residential homes.
Dinch said the project fulfills requirements for the township’s municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit, an unfunded state mandate. She said she’s not yet sure how much work can be done on the project, however, as the township did not receive as much as requested.
“We’re going to plan a meeting to see how much we can afford to do with the township money and the grant money,” Dinch said. “We’re just thrilled to have gotten anything. In this COVID world, we weren’t sure if we’d see any money.”
The third Washington County project will restore the stream bank and floodplain along Log Pile Run in Canton Township, which will also meet the township’s MS4 program requirements, according to project engineer Sam Carroll, of the Harshman CE Group.
This project, he said, will begin with studying 2,200 feet of the stream along Weirich Avenue, between the township’s fire station and Friendship Community Church. This portion of the stream is located just before it enters as a tributary into Chartiers Creek, Carroll said.
“A lot of the backyards through there have been flooding for a while,” Carroll said. “We’re looking at doing this project to help reduce pollutants in the stream.”
Carroll called it a “multi-dimensional project” consisting of three phases – study and design phase, permitting and construction. The $63,100 grant, he said, will be used for the design, working with landowner agreements, permitting and preparing the project for construction, which is still two to three years away.
The construction will include excavating a floodplain area and removing “historical sediment” and nutrients in the stream.
“A lot of previous land uses have led to buildups of sediment,” Carroll said.
Greene County
The Mars nonprofit Stream Restoration Inc. was awarded $244,240 to rehabilitate the Maiden Passive System in Greene County. Tim Danehy, treasurer of Stream Restoration, said the company has been working at the Dunkard Township site for nearly 20 years. He said the water treatment system was completed in 2007.
“We’re going to be cleaning out some of the existing treatment pods and putting in some new technology,” Danehy said.
He said the money will cover the majority of the project, but the agency will apply for other smaller grants too.
Fayette County
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy was awarded $497,218 for its Purco Watkiss AMD Remediation Project in Fayette County.
“The goal is to retrofit and implement an existing, but not utilized, abandoned mine drainage treatment system,” said WPC’s watershed projects manager Greg Schaetzle.
Schaetzle said the existing treatment system hasn’t been used in more than 20 years and isn’t functional. The conservancy intends to reconstruct it and use it to improve water quality flowing into Jonathan Run, which has been “devoid of life,” he said.
“We want to collect all the bad mine water flowing off this site and come up with a way to passively treat it and take all the metals and raise the pH, so it can be inhabitable by aquatic organisms again,” Schaetzle said.
The project will include an exploratory phase – to seek additional discharges on the property – a permitting and design phase, and finally a construction phase, he said. He’s hopeful the grant will fund the project in its entirety.
“These are typically three-year grants,” Schaetzle said. “We’re hoping to have the construction implemented in three years – by 2024, depending on the permitting and what else we find on the site during our investigations.”