The Intergovernmental Storm­water Committee has received permission from PennDOT to access a PennDOT property along I-99, between the VIP parking lot of People’s Natural Gas Field and Frankstown Road, for a wetlands mitigation project.

The project would prevent about 20,000 pounds of sediment per year from entering Brush Run, an improvement for which both the ISC and PennDOT would get credit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The ISC is responsible for reducing the amount of sediment entering streams in its 11-municipality area in central Blair County by 1.4 million pounds per year by 2023, while PennDOT is responsible for an 88,000-pound reduction, according to Tom Yocum, a permit coordinator for PennDOT.

The ground, which is on the other side of a small baseball field next to Park Avenue, where the avenue intersects Frankstown Road — and which is accessible over a small bridge not far from the ballfield backstop — is “already converting back into a wetland,” according to ISC coordinator Chelsey Ergler.

“We would set it up to allow it to fully become a wetland,” provided the ISC board decides to pursue the project, she said.

It could become an education and demonstration site for the community, she said.

The ISC would need to find the money for the project, according to Ergler.

ISC member Ed Silvetti asked about monitoring and maintenance after the project is finished, and Yocum said PennDOT would prefer that to become a municipal responsibility.

There would need to be a formal agreement to ensure it, however, Yocum said.

Nowadays, PennDOT looks for municipalities to take responsibility for post-construction maintenance whenever it can, said Cassandra Schmick, the Logan Township planning director.

Long-term operation and maintenance will become a challenge for virtually all the ISC will undertake, predicted Brian Shura, an engineer with Stiffler McGraw.

It will become problematic especially for projects done on private property, Shura said.

Park pond

The ISC is planning a $432,000 “green infrastructure” project just downstream along Brush Run from the PennDOT property, as a corollary to the centerpiece of its five-year pollution reduction plan — the dredging of the park pond.

The ISC recently received a $195,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation for the green infrastructure work — which calls for construction within Lakemont Park of three rain gardens, a vegetated permeable pavement parking lot, a rain water harvest system to reuse stormwater and a riparian buffer.

A $237,000 ISC match will comprise cash and in-kind services, including labor and organizational and administrative tasks, Ergler said.

The NFWF grant will not go toward the dredging, as stated erroneously in a Jan. 10 Mirror story — which also stated an incorrect cost for the $1.7 million dredging project.

The ISC will eventually look for grant money to help pay for the dredging, with NFWF and the state’s Growing Greener program among potential funding sources, according to Donna Fisher, manager of the Blair County Conservation District.

By preventing sediment from entering Brush Run just upstream from the pond, the green infrastructure project will help ensure that once dredged, the pond will function longer as a basin for settling out sediment before needing dredged again, Fisher said.

That should make it easier to obtain grant money for the dredging, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.