Blair OK With Lakemont Silt Going To Buckhorn

_{Photo Courtesy: Adam Elmquist}

The Blair County commissioners seem disposed to allow the Inter­governmental Stormwater Committee spread silt from the planned dredging of the Lakemont Park pond on county-connected ground near Buckhorn, according to ISC member and county administrator Helen Schmitt.

The Intermunicipal Relations Committee is also willing to accept silt from the Lakemont dredging at its compost facility at Buckhorn, according to ISC officials and IRC Executive Director John Frederick.

The willingness of both parties could help keep the cost of the dredging down, but that willingness depends on the silt testing “clean,” according to Schmitt and Teddie Kreitz of Keller Engineers, who works with the ISC.

The Blair County Solid Waste Authority could use the silt to reclaim a “moonscape”-like strip-mined area within 450 acres owned by the authority near Buckhorn, Frederick said.

Frederick’s IRC could mix the dredging silt with compost to create marketable topsoil on its 22-acre site nearby.

Frederick is optimistic the silt will test clean because there are no industrial sites discharging upstream from the pond, which was created by damming Brush Run, Frederick said.

One challenge for using the silt to reclaim the strip-mined area is lack of access, Frederick said. An access route would need to accommodate “many hundreds” of triaxle dump trucks.

A possible access route is through the IRC property, including its compost pad, but that could create operational difficulties and structural issues for the pad, Frederick indicated.

Still, the access challenge shouldn’t be “insurmountable,” Frederick said.

Old quarries in the King and Queen areas are another disposal possibility, according to an ISC official.

Having an established disposal site for the silt is important for obtaining a permit from the state Department of Enviro­nmental Protection to do the dredging, Kreitz indicated.

That doesn’t mean the ISC couldn’t allow the contractor who gets the dredging job to dispose of the silt somewhere else, officials indicated.

But in that case, the contractor would need to take responsibility for obtaining a disposal permit, said Brian Shura of Stiffler McGraw, who helps the ISC.

It might behoove the ISC to provide alternatives for bidders on the dredging, one of which called for disposal at the Buckhorn, the other of which would allow for disposal at a site of the contractor’s choosing, Schmitt said.

That way, if a contractor could actually sell the silt, it could lead to a lower bid for the dredging, she said.

The $1.7 million dredging project is the centerpiece of the ISC’s plan for complying with the DEP’s requirement to reduce the sediment entering area streams by 1.4 million pounds per year over five years.

The dredging of the pond alone would reduce the annual sediment load by 544,000 pounds.

The ISC has funding that may be used for engineering work on the dredging project, but hasn’t obtained grant money for the dredging itself.

Contributions from the 11 municipal members of the ISC could end up paying that cost, Shura indicated.

_{Source: altoonamirror.com}