Turnkey sediment reduction project could save Antrim Township money

Antrim Township staff has been given the go-ahead to look into the possibility of an environmental engineering firm doing a turnkey stormwater sediment reduction project for the township.

Supervisors approved the move after a stormwater update on June 8 as the township continues to look at the sediment reduction needed to meet the terms of its pollution reduction plan.

The township's plan, which is linked to the federal Clean Water Act, Chesapeake Bay cleanup measures and MS4 (municipal separate storm sewer system) requirements, currently calls for sediment it sends to the bay to be reduced by 245,011 pounds per year by the end of the permit cycle in 2023.

The township has been grappling with meeting the cleanup requirements for several years, and in 2019, a nearly $2.8 million stream bank restoration project was identified as a solid option.

However, Amber King-Reasner, the township's storm water technician, learned about the turnkey option at a Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors storm water conference last October.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation also is subject to the cleanup requirements, and King-Reasner handed out information on a project done for PennDOT by RES Engineers. The project was a little less than what Antrim Township has to do, but the price tag was only $750,000.

"Even if you tripled it, it's still under previous estimates," she said.

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In addition to cost savings, benefits of having an environmental engineering firm handle the whole project would be predictable pricing, a fixed contract, a firm used to submitting permits, measurable metrics and guaranteed regulatory compliance, King-Reasner said. A con is that there are no local environmental engineering firms.

Staffers will contact engineering firms for more information, and three possibilities for stream bank restoration are being looked at for Paddy Run and two unnamed tributaries that flow in to the Conococheague Creek, which flows into the Potomac River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.