Antrim looks at way to lessen erosion into watershed
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

Officials responsible for Antrim Township's land usage, wastewater treatment and expenditure of funds met jointly Monday night to learn details on the Department of Environmental Protection's Nutrient Trading Program. The program allows municipalities to delay expansions at wastewater treatment plants if certain actions are taken.

Planning Commission members Lester Musselman, Joel Wenger and Delbert Myers, Antrim Township Municipal Authority members Rodney Eberly, Bob Schemmerling and Roy Baum, and Antrim Township Board of Supervisors members Curtis Myers, Fred Young III and Rick Baer settled in for a detailed explanation of point sources and non-point sources of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, as well as remedies to meet DEP requirements by 2011. Also present were Antrim Township Manager Ben Thomas Jr., Utilities Director Charles Goetz and Utilities Superintendent Larson Wenger.

Last year Antrim used a DEP grant to hire LandStudies Inc. of Lititz to examine soils along tributaries of the Conococheague Creek. The creek feeds into the watershed, the largest in the United States. DEP has determined that 14 percent of nitrogen and 22 percent of phosphorous in the water comes from point sources, specifically sewage treatment plants and businesses.

Non-point sources, run-off from agriculture and urban areas, contribute 86 percent of the nitrogen and 78 percent of the phosphorous.

The goal is to reduce those numbers, using nutrient credits if necessary to come into compliance, Stephen Zeller from Brinjac Engineering told the assembly. The credits can be earned or purchased to even out the nutrient load limits of the treatment plants.

One way to achieve that would be restoring a flood plain along Muddy Run Creek, Zeller said. The creation of a wetland, planting a riparian buffer and managing stormwater would earn Antrim nutrient credits.

"How does this remove nutrients from the water?" asked Baum.

Zeller replied that from the soil study, particular levels of nitrogen and phosphorous were found. If the land had more wetland properties, rather than steep banks, less erosion would occur. The restoration was cost effective as well, he said, costing maybe $1.2 million rather than $3 million for one type of sewer plant improvement or $14 million for a major upgrade. An upgrade will eventually be necessary due to population pressures, he said, one that requires expensive technology. Nutrient credits could push back the date by years.

Baum also wondered if municipalities could buy enough credits to just dump raw sewage. Goetz assured him DEP set a discharge limit and always required a certain level of treatment.

The three representative bodies agreed to keep moving forward on nutrient trading and will meet with DEP. When exact direction is decided, it will be included in Antrim's Act 537 sewage disposal plan.