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Department of Environmental Protection Awards More than $22 Million in Grants

Conservationists hope to keep a well-used section of Stonycreek alive thanks to a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

In all, the DEP is awarding more than $23.2 million for various watershed projects.

The DEP awarded the grants to a total of 109 projects in the commonwealth through the Growing Greener Program, Acid Mine Drainage Set Aside Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program.

The Somerset Conservation District received its grant for the rehabilitation of the Oven Run Systems.

Len Lichvar, district manager, said they constructed a set of wetland treatment systems in the mid-1990s to abate abandoned mine drainage, but these systems are growing old.

“The $704,000 Growing Greener grant that we requested and received will hopefully address most of the serious concerns on these treatment systems and enable us to design and construct the needed upgrades in order for them to continue on and function in the future,” Lichvar said.

He said the mine drainage devastated the Stonycreek River Watershed for more than a hundred years, but after construction of the systems, the river rebounded and has become a year-round recreational destination point for angling, boating and white-water rafting.

He said the grant will be used for large-scale operation and maintenance of the systems.

“If that does not occur, the Stonycreek River could have a reversal of fortune very quickly, and given some of the failures that we’ve had at these systems in the recent years that we’ve been able to address in only minimal amounts, we’re very close to the tipping point where that can occur,” Lichvar said.

Cambria County was awarded more than $200,000 for various projects – one being the stabilization of the Glendale Lake shoreline.

Rob Piper, conservation district manager, said the Glendale Lake was created for flood control and has a lot of “wave action.”

“It basically beats against the shoreline and erodes it away, and it makes the lake shallower in some spots and then you have an erosion issue there,” Piper said. “And we’ve been putting some rock stabilization and creating fish habitat at the same time along these exposed shorelines.”

The Conservation District also plans to use the grants to restore previously built flood control projects in Nanty-Glo Borough and Northern Cambria Borough.

He said the flood control projects created unwanted sediment deposits, but the grant will help fix that.

“These projects actually reconstruct a low-flow channel and concentrate the flow for the lower volume of water – like during the summertime – and then it also puts a meander back in the stream to create a more natural looking stream,” Piper said.

He said the projects will allow the sediment to be carried through the flood protection projects and cut down on the maintenance and expenses.

Other projects that received grants include Phase II of Etna Borough’s Green Streets, which works to remove storm water from the combined sewer system, and the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, Inc.’s, Rosedale Runoff Reduction project in Allegheny County.

Jess is from Elizabeth Borough, PA and is a junior at Duquesne University with a double major in journalism and public relations. She was named as a fellow in the WESA newsroom in May 2013.