Millions will be spent on logs, rocks to stabilize Allegheny, Westmoreland stream banks

A 1,800-foot stretch of the Little Sewickley Creek in the Herminie and Darragh areas will soon be stabilized with rocks and logs.

The project will help to deflect the water’s current and improve the habitat for aquatic life of the trout-stocked stream, said Greg Schaetzle, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s watershed manager for Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The project is among four that are planned to improve streams near Herminie, New Florence, Latrobe and East Huntingdon.

Logs and rocks also will be used to stabilize a 1,200-foot section of Shannon Run in St. Clair Township to reduce erosion and create a habitat for aquatic life in a creek designated as a high quality cold water fishery. At a cost of $122,166, there will be 13 logs and rocks placed in in the stream to create structures to deflect and redirect the water, which flows into the Conemaugh River west of New Florence.

That work may not be done until 2025 or 2026, Schaetzle said.

A project along Monastery Run at the Adelphoi Village school in Unity is designed to stabilize about 500 feet of the severely eroded stream bank.

The project will involve grading and installing riprap to protect Adelphoi Village from losing any property from the erosion, said Kylie Schultz, the Westmoreland Conservation District’s watershed specialist. Schultz said Adelphoi Village contacted the conservation district about its concern over the erosion and she wrote the grant last year for the $156,280 project.

At the YMCA of Laurel Highlands on Bessemer Road in East Huntingdon, the conservation district will retrofit several stormwater basins in the facility’s parking lot at a cost of $186,505.

A rain garden will be created and a small stormwater basin will be built, said Robert Cronauer, manager of the Westmoreland Conservation District. Part of the asphalt in the large parking lot will be removed and replaced with permeable material that will absorb water, rather than allow it to run off the parking lot.

It is likely that the work on the two projects will not be done until 2025. There is paperwork required to get the release of the money from the state, Cronauer said.

The project costs are impacted by the increased cost of materials such as the logs, rocks for backfill, seed and mulch and riparian planting of trees along the stream, Schaetzle said. The cost of obtaining permitting fees also adds to the expense, as does the cost of paying prevailing wage rates to contractors, he added.

The Nine Mile Run watershed in Allegheny County also was one of the beneficiaries of $2.1 million in state cash, according to the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection.

The second phase of a stormwater project will be implemented in Wilkinsburg. The project by Upstream Pittsburgh will cost an estimated $390,000. Seven systems will be installed to address water quality issues.

Mike Hiller, executive director of Upstream Pittsburgh, could not be reached for comment.