Rutter’s project draws criticism

Hearing attendees fear runoff from new store may affect trout stream

PINECROFT -- When Lee Pryor was a kid growing up in Birmingham Borough near Tyrone, the Little Juniata River that runs along Route 453 was a "sewer" -- off limits for playing.

Pryor is the mayor of Birmingham in Huntingdon County now and has gray hair, but the river is rejuvenated and is one of the foremost trout streams in Pennsylvania, according to Pryor.

"I don't want to see this start going the other way," he said at the fire hall here Thursday in a state Department of Environmental Protection hearing on a proposal for a Rutter's truck stop nearby whose runoff would flow toward the river.

About 50 people attended, with eight testifying. No one spoke in favor of the proposed 10,000-square-foot store on a 19-acre parcel that is part of a 119-acre tract on a raised area where Pleasant Valley Boulevard intersects Sabbath Rest Road -- the same tract on which Walmart proposed a store around 2007 then backed off.

"We're not against development," said Bill Anderson, president of the Little Juniata River Association, who also testified.

But the site is on top of fractured limestone, and runoff from a truck stop and other likely commercial venues on the site would flow into an exceptional-value wetland, then to trout-incubating Sandy Run and then to the Class A "Little J," putting them all at risk, according to Anderson and others.

The risk would come from warm water, which could raise the temperature beyond which trout thrive, they said.

There's also potential for leakage and runoff of gasoline and runoff of oil, grease and grit, according to people who testified.

The risks should give DEP "great pause," said Gary Miller of Antis Township, a retired environmental consultant who worked with PennDOT on the department's encounter with pyrite when it built I-99 in Centre County.

Excavation and possibly blasting during construction could be a problem, as could the resulting development, with "14 football fields" of impervious surface for the truck stop and 70 additional football fields for the rest of the tract, Miller said.

It could "wipe out the fishery," he said.

A major weather event is most to be feared, according to Anderson.

Climate change contributes to the likelihood of that, others stated.

M&G Realty of York is proposing to develop the site for Rutter's and is seeking a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

Technically, the permit is for construction only, according to DEP spokesman John Repetz, who moderated the hearing.

But practically, it applies to both construction and operation of the finished truck stop development, according to Anderson, because it would make no sense to OK construction, then deny an operating permit, he said.

The department will be accepting written testimony until Aug. 16, according to Repetz.

Information about the case is available on DEP's South Central office community information web page, under Rutter's Store 82, according to Repetz.

The department will take all comments into consideration and at some point issue a determination about the permit, he said.

Walmart withdrew its proposal around 2008, finding that the requirements for dealing with runoff were going to be too onerous and expensive, according to Anderson.

There were indications that DEP was going to deny Walmart's permit application anyway, he said.

And many businesses were withdrawing from projects at that time, due to an economic downturn, he said.

The site remains inappropriate for such development, according to Anderson.

"There are much better places than on top of a limestone outcropping overlooking an exceptional value wetland and a high-value trout stream," he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.