Hanson, Dredge on the Allegheny River @ River Forest

 

 

 

By Mary Ann Thomas

FOR THE VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH

Monday, January 5, 2009

 

 

 

After hearing all of the bangs, clangs, screeching and voices in the middle of the night, there is finally peace in Pool 4 for the residents of River Forest.

 

The commercial dredging operations have ceased in the Allegheny River near the backyards of the River Forest community, one of the few residential waterfront developments in the region.

 

Hanson Aggregates PMA of New Kensington has moved its dredging operation upstream from Pool 4 to Pool 5, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

 

Calls to Hanson for comment were not returned.

 

Recently, Hanson and two other commercial dredgers dropped an appeal with the state Environmental Hearing Board on new dredging regulations near the River Forest community.

 

Residents have long been disturbed by the noise of the operations. They were irked by the industry's freedom to set up a barge and a large powered clamshell bucket to mine the river bed into the night and on weekends within sight and ear shot of a residential neighborhood.

 

Some of the residents said they felt that the fresh water mussels were afforded more protection from the dredgers than they were.

 

So they rallied and complained about the noise, hired an attorney, hired an acoustics engineer, filed appeals, worked with local and state lawmakers to restrict try to force the dredge away from River Forest.

 

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, persuaded Kathleen McGinty, the former DEP secretary, to visit with River Forest residents in March, after which the residents scored a victory.

 

DEP added conditions to the dredging permit requiring Hanson to make less noise and limit its hours of operations in the River Forest area.

 

Residents continued to work with Ferlo, who vows to draft legislation limiting the work of an industry that has, for about 150 years, dredged the sand and gravel lining the beds of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers.

 

Decades ago, the industry was barely perceptible to the average person because the river was not the pleasure palace that it is today.

 

But as communities like River Forest as well as remodeled camps, trails, marinas and kayak tours now dot the waterfront, more people are noticing the river-dredging operations.

 

"We have gone through a fundamental shift along the three rivers, and it has changed what people want to live next to," Ferlo said.

 

"In Allegheny Township, they put blood, sweat and tears into those beautiful homes only to wake up to an industrial factory next to them, which just happens to be the river."

 

But river dredging isn't really a high profile operation because only four dredges operate in a 100-mile swath of water from the Allegheny River's Pool 9 just north of Rimer in Armstrong County to the Ohio River at the Ohio/West Virginia border, said Dan Giovannitti, spokesman for the dredging industry.

 

"Very few people have even seen a dredge," he said. "The amount of river bottom that is touched by a dredging operation in any given year is probably 4 to 5 acres."

 

Good gravel

 

The dredgers often find themselves under attack by environmental and other interests that question the existence of the industry and its impact on the river.

 

In fact, the only three companies that dredge the river -- Hanson, Glacial Sand and Gravel of Kittanning and Tri-State River Products of Beaver -- often unite to conduct environmental studies and appeal new restrictions and other legalities that could limit the scope of their work.

 

The industry employs about 250 workers in the region and mines about 3.5 million tons of sand and gravel from the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, Giovannitti said.

 

One of the advantages of river dredging, he said, is that an enormous amount of material is moved via barges directly to terminals and processing plants instead of dump trucks, which would require about 160,000 trips on land to move the same sand and gravel.

 

"It's a very efficient and sound way of capturing material," said Giovannitti.

 

Additionally, the river sand and gravel is a high grade employed for anti-skid material and asphalt for PennDOT, the major user of river aggregate.

 

Giovannitti stresses that a series of intense studies conducted by the industry -- with protocols approved by several environmental agencies -- demonstrated that there are no significant impacts on aquatic life posed by dredging.

 

"The river bottom has changed, certainly," he said. "But as a result of our studies, there was very little change about how dredging was conducted."

 

Permit conditions for dredging continue to evolve.

 

For example, dredging companies have been conducting mussel surveys for about 35 years.

 

"What's changed is the protocol -- how long a diver should be there and to study every one-tenth of a mile," Giovannitti said.

 

But the industry continues to be challenged because interest in the river continues to grow.

 

A University of Pittsburgh researcher, Conrad Volz, has been studying toxins in the water and fish in the Allegheny River.

 

He has staged town hall meetings in Allegheny Township and other communities along the Allegheny.

 

"River mining came up as one of the primary issues at those meetings," Volz said.

 

Residents value their water resources, according to Volz, and are questioning any practice that disturbs the river bottom.

 

Dredgers in the backyard

 

Phyllis and John Framel, a former Leechburg resident and then later, a retired Gulf Oil executive, saw no dredging operations when they visited the site of their new home before it was built in 1994.

 

There was only beautiful Allegheny River frontage and an ideal development next to the River Forest Golf Course.

 

A year after the couple moved in 1994, a dredge boat anchored down across from their back yard and stayed until 1996. It left, then reappeared in the neighborhood in spring 2007.

 

"There were days when John and I considered moving," Phyllis Framel said. "It was nerve-racking. You couldn't sleep; you'd hear the bangs and the PA system telling someone 'Hey, Joe: You forgot your lunch.'"

 

Phyllis Framel contacted the dredging company and the DEP to find out her rights as a landowner, the intentions of the dredger and the laws.

 

"It took a good three to six months to figure out to who to talk to, what's going on, and how to get involved in the process," she said.

 

Working on and off for almost a dozen years, Framel said that she was guided by a government official from Harrisburg who worked with her during off-business hours, explaining "the process I was up against and the nature of the beast."

 

Framel said that she requested restrictions be placed on the dredging in the late 1990s, but nothing happened.

 

It wasn't until 2007 when the river dredging operations resumed across from River Forest that a group of residents banded together and hired an attorney to fight the dredgers.

 

They got DEP to add restrictions to the dredging permit for Pool 4.

 

Even though the company documented attempts to stifle the noise, it never satisfied the residents and DEP pressed for more action. The dredgers appealed.

 

It all became a moot point when Hanson voluntarily moved its dredge operations from the River Forest area to Pool 5.

 

Although a win for Framel and the residents, she is still not at ease.

 

There's nothing stopping a dredge from resuming operations in her neighborhood again or elsewhere.

 

"When you start this, you just want to protect your home," she said. "But as you get into it and get educated, you realize it's about the river, which is the life blood of this Valley.

 

"It become something more than about noise in my backyard."

 

Ferlo wants to do more to protect the rights of residents who live by the water, who, for example, should be notified when a dredging operation is coming near their homes.

 

"We have to take the individual advocacy of the residents of River Forest and seek some substantive oversight changes and government regulation of dredging, " he said.

 

He suggests applying similar regulations used for mining on land to commercial river dredging.

 

"I'm worried that our regulations are not covering what they should, given the commercial revenue motivation. I question whether we need to do much commercial dredging. It needs to be re-evaluated about why we even engage in it and to the extent that we will allow it."

 

But that's up to the public and lawmakers, according to Helen Humpheys, DEP spokeswoman.

 

DEP's authority to restrict the dredging industry is limited by laws and regulations, she said.

 

"And that is frustrating to people who want to impose limitations on the industry," Humphreys said.

 

"But it is essential that any industry understand what restrictions they are subject to, which is why it requires an act by the Legislature or a substantial change to regulations. And both are subject to public review."

 

Framel plans to continue to help support Ferlo's efforts to draft legislation limiting dredging.

 

 

 

 

 

Done