The Intergovernmental Stormwater Committee has shrunk its proposed floodplain restoration project for the Beaverdam Branch of the Juniata River by more than 25%, after learning that the project cannot include raising the riverbank and after a family who lives along the river sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening a lawsuit.

Previously estimated to cost $3.1 million, the project would still begin at the western end near Hoss’s restaurant on Plank Road in Duncansville, but it will now end a little more than a quarter of a mile shy of Allegheny Street in Hollidaysburg, for a new total length of 0.8 mile.

The new plans will mean that work that includes laying back the banks to give the river more room to flow will not occur along five properties on the south side of the river, where owners have expressed concerns about flooding — including the owners of the property closest to Allegheny Street, who sent the cease-and-desist letter.

Until recently, the ISC’s consulting engineers were hoping the project could include minor enhancements to berms along the river, including maintenance of the bank height on the property closest to Allegheny Street.

There, the bank is narrow, and the ground slopes down as one moves away from the river.

Under the existing project permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the ISC would not be permitted to lay back the banks there, while constructing a new bank farther from the channel to match the height of the existing bank, as it originally intended to do.

To get permission for that kind of activity, a different kind of permit would be needed — one that would add costs and that would further delay the work, according to Chelsey Weyant, the ISC stormwater coordinator.

Project designer, LandStudies of Lancaster, has therefore created the new, shorter version of the project.

The project is not designed for flood reduction, although there are areas on both the north and south side of the river where flooding levels will be reduced or eliminated in a 100-year storm, according to a project map.

There is also an area on the south side where water surface elevations would be increased in a 100-year storm — but by less than 2 inches at most, according to the map.

The ISC proposed the Beaverdam project to help fulfill a requirement that it reduce the amount of sediment that stormwater carries into streams in the urbanized area of Blair County by 10%, or 1.4 million pounds per year, over the life of a seven-year permit that ends at the close of 2025.

Even though the scope of the project has shrunk, it will actually reduce sediment inflow by between 700,000 to 1.2 million pounds per year, which is more than previously predicted for the full-length project, officials said.

“We want no part of the ‘Beaverdam Branch Floodplain Restoration Project’ unless you are willing to help us with flooding,” the family states in the cease-and-desist letter.

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