Old Lycoming Township supervisors have their eyes and concerns on the restoration of the Bottle Run watershed and helping to clean up Lycoming Creek and Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Through Lycoming County’s Community Clean Water Action Plan, the county is funding Old Lycoming Township to perform a stormwater (MS4-related) project on Bottle Run.

As an MS4 stream the municipality is tasked with developing and implementing a plan to reduce stormwater impacts in a specific area, said Billy Clees, Natural Resource Planner with the county Department of Planning and Community Development.

Recently, supervisors passed a resolution: a subrecipient monitoring agreement between the county and township.

The agreement made between the county and township affirms that the township is a subrecipient of a Community Clean Water Action Plan Implementation grant in the amount of $104,022.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is the funding source of the grant that has a term of Jan. 1, 2021 through June 30, 2024.

The grant will be used for the Bottle Run Stream Restoration project.

The actual project involves stream restoration on about 1,500 linear feet of Bottle Run, a tributary to Lycoming Creek.

The work will be from the Sechler Circle area to Yale Avenue in the township.

The project components include adding 23 structures such as log cross vanes, rock deflectors and mudsills along the streambank that will help stabilize the stream.

This work will be combined with debris removal.

The current streambank is undercut, eroding and lacks buffers.

These structures are approved by the state Fish and Boat Commission for stream restoration as natural stream channel enhancements.

It is expected to reduce sediment by 67,320 pounds and reduce phosphorus by 102 pounds.

The project will provide the required total phosphorus reduction in the locally impaired watershed and will help to meet the Chesapeake Bay requirements.