The state Department of Environmental Protection has fined Rutter’s real estate holding company and an excavation contractor $73,000 for violations of the Clean Streams Law during the recent construction of a Rutter’s convenience store in Pinecroft.

The violations were discovered by inspections conducted between May and August last year by the Blair County Conservation District after the district was alerted to turbid water discharged from the site following rainstorms.

Members of the Little Juniata River Association found that sediment-containing water by taking samples from a culvert that drains the site at Sabbath Rest Road and old Route 220, before the water ran into wetlands that feed a tributary of Sandy Run — a high-quality, cold-water trout stream the association wants to protect.

M&G Realty of York and Curry Excavating of Duncansville failed to implement or maintain best management erosion control practices; failed to follow the proper sequence of activities in the project’s erosion and sedimentation plan; failed to follow the provisions of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit for the site; and failed to hold a pre-construction meeting with the Conservation District or DEP, according to the “consent assessment of civil penalty,” a copy of which was provided to the Mirror by the Little Juniata association.

The association tried a few years ago to block the use of the site for the project, because of concerns about Sandy Run, but failed, according to association President Bill Anderson.

The association, however, continued to try to protect the stream by monitoring discharge from the culvert, after taking “baseline” readings from the culvert and the waters downstream, Anderson said.

There was virtually no runoff coming through the culvert from the wooded and brush-covered site before the project began, Anderson said.

The association used money from a $5,000 grant from the Foundation for PA Watersheds to pay for the testing of samples that association members collected any time there was significant rain, Anderson said.

There were times when the water was “not clear by any means,” said association board member Gary Miller, who worked for many years for an environmental engineering firm.

Observations of the construction site itself also showed that at times, the contractor didn’t install protections against erosion soon enough, Miller said.

Those protections need to be placed promptly to ensure that rain doesn’t wash away dirt in the meantime, Miller said.

“They got themselves way ahead of the game,” he said.

Association members saw “significant erosion ditches cut by rainfall,” Anderson stated.

The association reported its findings to the Conservation District, which sent inspectors, Anderson said.

The sediment that washed into the wetland next to the tributary hasn’t caused any damage that has been apparent to the members thus far, Anderson said.

The association is actually worried more about runoff from the parking lot after the store opens for business, Anderson said.

The lot will provide parking for many tractor-trailers, and there will doubtless be spills of diesel fuel, oil, antifreeze and transmission oil, he said.

There is a rain garden and a series of underground tanks designed to ensure against contaminants reaching the wetlands, and thus the tributary and eventually, Sandy Run, but association members aren’t entirely confident those will be effective long term, according to Anderson.

The rain garden is designed to allow runoff from the parking lot and the roof of the store to infiltrate into the ground, with uptake of some contaminants by the plants in the rain garden, Miller said.

The series of underground tanks are designed so that sediment will settle in successive tanks, and the overflow will be cleaner as the water proceeds to the subsequent tanks, Miller said.

The tanks are also equipped with filters to trap oil and other substances that float, he said.

But the tanks will need to be maintained, he said.

And they may be susceptible to overflowing during really heavy, repeated rains, Anderson said.

Still, the “DEP seems to think Rutter’s has it under control,” Miller said.

Curry Excavating was unable to be reached for comment, and Rutter’s didn’t return a message seeking comments on the issue.

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