AWA to spend $68K on silt dispute

Reade Township voices concern about effect on drinking water

The Altoona Water Authority will spend $68,000 to convince the state that silt from the Bellwood dam renovation won't harm Reade Township's drinking water aquifer.

The authority initially obtained a permit from the Cambria County Conservation District to deposit silt from the reservoir basin as "clean fill" on reclaimed strip mine land in Reade.

But a complaint from the township led to a requirement for the authority to stop the hauling and obtain a general permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to allow for spreading "dredged material."

That permit requires further sampling and analysis than was done for the initial permit, officials said.

The samples are more numerous and the analysis "more in-depth," said authority General Manager Mark Perry.

The samples come from various parts of the basin, which is empty, as workers create a new spillway and other facilities for the dam.

The DEP wants to see "consistency" in the findings, Perry said.

The analysis conducted by consulting engineer Gwin Dobson & Foreman shows that everything "is in alignment" with the original findings that justified the Conservation District permit, according to Perry.

The general permit protocol seems to be new, such that DEP is still developing it, according to Perry.

It's broad in scope, he said.

The authority is confident, as a mining program official has endorsed the permit application, one official said.

"Will (DEP) expedite the review?" board member Gory Gehret asked.

"I hope so," said Mark Glenn of Gwin. "We expressed the need to get it done this summer."

The department "indicated it would turn it around quickly," Perry said. "We'll see."

Much of the money will go toward lab fees and fees for a professional geologist and soil scientist, Glenn said.

Broadly speaking, the silt is returning to the gamelands ground from which Bells Gap Run washed it down over the decades, Perry said.

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