The state Department of Environmental Protection has granted a stormwater discharge permit for construction of a Rutter’s truck stop in Pinecroft.

“There don’t appear to be any other major hurdles (left),” said John Frederick, recreation and environmental director for Antis Township, where the site is located.

Stormwater will flow from the site at Sabbath Rest Road and Pleasant Valley Boulevard into nearby exceptional-value wetlands, which feed trout-incubating Sandy Run, which flows into the Class A Little Juniata River.

That scenario has generated environmental concerns whose depth is reflected by the large attendance for a DEP hearing on the permit last summer and the pages upon pages of written comments with responses on the permit application.

Water heated by running over asphalt could damage the cold water fishery by raising the temperature of Sandy Run, and pollutants like diesel fuel, grease and grit could come along, the environmentalists worry.

Workers will need to excavate extensively to develop the 19-acre raised limestone site, which could create sinkholes and affect fissures and voids in ways problematic for groundwater purity, recharge and outflow, according to environmentalists.

Not to worry, according to DEP.

The facilities for detaining and discharging stormwater from the site meet all legal requirements, the agency states over and over in responses to the written comments.

“The designated and existing uses of Sandy Run, the unnamed tributary to Sandy Run and the associated wetlands will be protected and maintained through implementation of the best management practices,” DEP stated in answer to one comment. Moreover, “the permit does not authorize pollution to groundwater.”

Water will flow off the asphalt and into the detention facilities quickly enough to avoid the excessive warming that the environmentalists fear, according to DEP.

And those detention facilities will retain the water long enough for it to cool further, according to the agency.

The Rutter’s developer has characterized the limestone-based site appropriately and demonstrated that “groundwater recharge will occur to maintain pre-construction subsurface hydrologic flow conditions,” the environmental agency stated in one response.

And there are “repair instructions” in the development plans to deal with sinkholes, the DEP stated.

There are also plans for dealing with spills, including “manufactured devices to separate sediments, oils and debris from the stormwater prior to (its) entering the stormwater basins,” according to DEP.

And there are plans for stabilizing newly exposed slopes with vegetation, the DEP stated, in answer to one concern.

“We’re not anti-development,” said Bill Anderson, president of the Little Juniata River Association, who has monitored the proposal for the site and a prior proposal to build a Walmart on the tract, “if it can be done without negative impact.”

The Rutter’s application for land development has been before the Antis Township Planning Commission for two years, with the PennDOT Highway Occupancy Permit, and the stormwater discharge (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems) permit the main holdups, Frederick said.

Those are now taken care of.

“Developments like this one are challenging from a number of perspectives and the interests of the developer and the community are often at odds,” Frederick wrote in an email.

The DEP “has tried to protect those nearby resources in whatever way the law prescribes and allows,” he wrote.

If local people hope “for something beyond what DEP and the township can acquire,” they should let the developer know, he suggested.

“One always hopes community concerns are heard,” he wrote.

The 10,000-square-foot Rutter’s will be on 19 acres, which were part of a 119-acre tract.

Rutter’s has sold the remainder of the tract to a developer, Anderson said.

That remainder represents the equivalent of 70 football fields, he said.

When it is developed, all the environmental rules will need to be followed, the DEP stated in a comment response.

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