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<p>Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority representatives knew Spring Run in Hanover Township was supposed to run through an opening underneath railroad tracks and figured they&#8217;d find it once trash at the site was removed.</p><p>But it still wasn&#8217;t visible after extracting tires, car parts, the front of a vehicle, shopping carts and a large quantity of other garbage that had been washed down or dumped there, said authority Storm Water Division Manager Jeff Colella.</p><p>Crews kept digging &#8212; and digging. The water passage below the tracks was buried under nine feet of sediment that had piled up over the years, Colella said.</p><p>&#8220;In heavy rain events, the water had nowhere to go. It&#8217;s not meant to just build up there and flood,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The Spring Run stream bank restoration is among the first projects that will be funded by a controversial stormwater fee imposed to meet a federal mandate to reduce sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus in the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay, the authority said.</p><p>Based on nonabsorbent impervious area, the fee applies to 31 municipalities that signed up for the authority&#8217;s regional mandate compliance program. In addition to projects, the authority is sweeping streets, cleaning catch basins and performing mapping and other work required under the mandate.</p><p>Located off West Liberty Street near the Sunny Hill Development, the Spring Run project will include more sediment removal along a 600-foot stretch of the waterway. The banks will be graded back 35 feet on each side and filled with stabilizing plantings to prevent erosion and help trap and absorb pollutants, Colella said.</p><p>The sediment removal performed to unclog the drainage outlet was necessary to proceed with engineering design, Colella said.</p><p>The project can&#8217;t be bid until permits are issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will take about a year, Colella said.</p><p>Both government agencies must sign off on work in waterways, he said.</p><p><strong>Sediment by levee</strong></p><p>Standing atop the Wyoming Valley Levee near the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming, Colella pointed to a patch of land jutting into the diverted Abraham&#8217;s Creek.</p><p>&#8220;See where all that sediment is built up? That&#8217;s not supposed to be there. It&#8217;s supposed to be totally open,&#8221; Colella said.</p><p>The authority wants to remove this growth and restore about 2,000 feet of the creek banks between Route 11 and the Susquehanna River as part of another stormwater project in the works. In addition to reducing sediment and pollutants, the project would help the levee, he said.</p><p>&#8220;That will stop the erosion from eating away at the toe of the dike, and we will get credit for that in our pollution reduction program,&#8221; Colella said.</p><p>The diverted creek flows under the highway through a system known as the 12 tubes drainage structure. On a rainy day last week, the creek was flowing out of all 12 adjacent pipes.</p><p>With the sediment mass impeding the waterway path, the creek forces its way through a smaller opening during heavy flows, knocking off more sediment from the banks, he said.</p><p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t want any sediment falling into streams. That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re trying to prevent,&#8221; Colella said, noting the federal mandate requires a natural planting solution and does not provide credit for the stone rip-rap used along some waterways.</p><p>In addition to permits from DEP and the U.S. Army Corps, the authority must obtain approval from the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority that oversees the levee system.</p><p>Christopher Belleman, executive director of the flood protection authority, said he already met with sanitary authority represents once to discuss the potential project and is interested in developing an agreement that must be presented to his authority board.</p><p>Belleman said his authority had cleared sediment from the 12 tubes discharge site about five years ago and could benefit from assistance addressing the persistent problem.</p><p>&#8220;Whatever the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority comes up with that is mutually beneficial, we will consider,&#8221; Belleman said.</p><p>Once implemented, stormwater pollution reduction projects would be operated and maintained by the sanitary authority to ensure they continue to produce expected results, with annual reports required to document upkeep, authority officials have said.</p><p><strong>Other projects</strong></p><p>Several rain gardens and a stormwater park also are in design.</p><p>Both are designed to capture and filter runoff, but the parks will include public recreation and education spaces and handle more sizeable runoff drainage areas.</p><p>The first rain garden to go out to bid, possibly with construction beginning this spring, is at the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center in Plains Township, Colella said.</p><p>Other initial rain gardens are planned on the grounds of the Greater Nanticoke Area High School, the Korn Street Park in Kingston, St. Anthony&#8217;s Church in Exeter and the Wyoming Valley West High School in Plymouth, Colella said.</p><p>The first stormwater park is planned in Plains Township on land provided by the municipality.</p><p>Grants and other funding will offset the cost of some projects, he said.</p><p>DEP has granted administrative approval for the authority&#8217;s pollution reduction plan, effective Jan. 1, Colella said.</p><p>That means the authority will have five years from that date to comply with pollution reduction targets on behalf of the participating municipalities, he said.</p><p>Without DEP approval, the authority was unable to advance to construction or seek other required approvals for projects, officials have said.</p><p>Overall, the plan includes approximately 65 green infrastructure projects over five years at an estimated cost of $17 million, the authority has said.</p><p>While the fee has created a public uproar, the authority and many municipal officials have asserted property owners are paying less than they would if municipalities had their own compliance plans funded through local real estate taxes.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Spring-Run-Starting-Project-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Spring Run off West Liberty Street in Hanover Township was blocked when it hit this pile of garbage and sediment that has since been removed by the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority as part of a project funded by the stormwater fee. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Spring-Run-Starting-Project-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Spring Run off West Liberty Street in Hanover Township was blocked when it hit this pile of garbage and sediment that has since been removed by the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority as part of a project funded by the stormwater fee. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_5-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">This Spring Run waterway opening below railroad tracks in Hanover Township had been buried under sediment and garbage. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_5-1-.jpg</photo1><caption1>This Spring Run waterway opening below railroad tracks in Hanover Township had been buried under sediment and garbage. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_6-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The banks of Spring Run in Hanover Township will be graded and covered with stabilizing and filtering plantings as part of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority pollution reduction plan funded by a stormwater fee. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_6-1-.jpg</photo2><caption2>The banks of Spring Run in Hanover Township will be graded and covered with stabilizing and filtering plantings as part of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority pollution reduction plan funded by a stormwater fee. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_1-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Standing atop the Wyoming Valley Levee in Wyoming, Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Storm Water Division Manager Jeff Colella points to sediment that has created a land mass in the diverted Abraham&#8217;s Creek &#8212; a problem that may be addressed as part of stormwater fee projects. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_1-1-.jpg</photo3><caption3>Standing atop the Wyoming Valley Levee in Wyoming, Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Storm Water Division Manager Jeff Colella points to sediment that has created a land mass in the diverted Abraham&#8217;s Creek &#8212; a problem that may be addressed as part of stormwater fee projects. </caption3><photoCredit3>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_2-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">This land mass connected to the Wyoming Valley Levee in Wyoming is not supposed to be there and was created by sediment build-up in the diverted Abraham&#8217;s Creek along Route 11 in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_2-1-.jpg</photo4><caption4>This land mass connected to the Wyoming Valley Levee in Wyoming is not supposed to be there and was created by sediment build-up in the diverted Abraham&#8217;s Creek along Route 11 in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority. </caption4><photoCredit4>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_4-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Storm Water Division Manager Jeff Colella describes the removal of sediment blocking the flow of Spring Run beneath railroad tracks off West Liberty Street in Hanover Township. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL12xx19stormwater_4-1-.jpg</photo5><caption5>Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Storm Water Division Manager Jeff Colella describes the removal of sediment blocking the flow of Spring Run beneath railroad tracks off West Liberty Street in Hanover Township. </caption5><photoCredit5>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit5></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority stormwater fee projects explained