Traps, trenches planned to reduce stream sediment

POTTSTOWN » The public has until Aug. 8 to comment on a plan to control stormwater for the next five years.

The plan is required to obtain a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as part of the municipal separate storm water system, a requirement of the federal Clean Water Act.

Tom Weld, engineer for the Pottstown Borough Authority, which has accepted responsibility for managing the borough’s storm water, presented the plan to borough council July 5.

In addition to continuing to monitor for potential PCB chemical contamination from several old industrial sites, the borough must reduce by 10 percent the sediment carried by Goose Run, a tributary of Manatawny Creek that begins in Upper Pottsgrove and runs through Highland Memorial Park cemetery before heading underground into the storm sewer system.

That means the borough needs to remove 52,197 pounds of sediment from Goose Run each year.

That will be accomplished, Weld said, with the installation of two sediment traps, one near Airy Street east of North Hanover Street, and one near Fourth Street, west of North Hanover Street.

Additionally, an “infiltration trench” will be installed at the Airy Street site.

All total, the project is expected to cost about $200,000.

Weld said the borough already has a $40,000 grant to pay for the sediment trap at Fourth Street, and his firm has identified another $100,000 in grants for which the project may be eligible.