The $700 million Interstate 99 construction project has hit a serious snag, with crews unearthing vast quantities of a \u201cwicked\u201d pollutant that threatens a waterway, state officials said.
\nGary Byron, assistant regional director for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said he\u2019s never before seen such potential for stream damage as the acid rock taken from a sandstone layer at Skytop Mountain during construction.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the worst I\u2019ve seen … and I\u2019ve been here 27 years,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bottom line is, PennDOT\u2019s environmental-impact work for I-99 missed this geologic formation.\u201d
\nIt is the biggest construction setback for the state Department of Transportation since it began building this stretch of highway five years ago, and might delay this year\u2019s scheduled opening of I-99 from Grays Woods to Port Matilda.
\nThat would prolong commuting delays for thousands of people who live in the Philipsburg and Altoona areas and work in State College.
\nThose motorists have already endured traffic jams and detours on U.S. Routes 322 and 220 for the last two years.
\nWorkers dug up between 500,000 and 1 million cubic yards of acid rock that had been safely sealed in geologic formations.
\nThe rock is now exposed to rainwater that drains into Buffalo Run, a high-quality tributary of Spring Creek.
\nThe state Fish and Boat Commission said recent data showed a decrease in the number of aquatic insects and other wildlife in stream, although officials said more testing would be needed to tell whether the reduced counts are the result of acid-rock drainage or natural variations.
\nThe Skytop acid rock \u201cis rare, but it is very wicked in chemical composition,\u201d Byron said.
\nThe discharge is being temporarily neutralized with 10,000 pounds of soda-ash briquettes as it washes into the stream.
\nPennDOT has not yet decided how to permanently repair the problem, but hopes to come up with a solution by May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The $700 million Interstate 99 construction project has hit a serious snag, with crews unearthing vast quantities of a \u201cwicked\u201d pollutant that threatens a waterway, state officials said. Gary Byron, assistant regional director for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said he\u2019s never before seen such potential for stream damage as the acid rock taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}