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| navigate: home: magazine: spring 2002: article | |
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Training helps eliminate dust and sediment from waterways By Deborah A. Benedetti | ||||||
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There are more than 17,000 miles of dirt and gravel roads throughout Pennsylvania. These unpaved roads are important links in the state’s transportation network, providing access to the state’s major industries, including agriculture, mining, forestry and tourism. Unfortunately, some of these roads pollute nearby waterways due to poor design or lack of maintenance. Penn State is helping to solve this problem through the new Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies, established in February 2001, according to Dr. Michael Silsbee, director of the center and senior research associate and associate professor of materials. The 1997 report on The Status of and Future Directions for the Pennsylvania Task Force on Dirt and Gravel Roads documents the widespread impact of dirt and gravel roads on Pennsylvania’s waterways. The report states: “Poorly maintained dirt roads become ‘dust and sediment factories’ — ready, willing and able polluters. ... According to the Department of Environmental Protection, nonpoint-source runoff is responsible for 88 percent of all impaired stream miles in Pennsylvania.” Nonpoint-source pollution refers to pollution sources that are not readily identifiable. To eliminate dust and sediment from waterways, the Pennsylvania General Assembly approved a Transportation Revenue Bill (Act 3) in April 1997 that provides $5 million annually to prevent pollution by environmentally sound maintenance of dirt and gravel roads. Of these funds, $1 million goes to the Bureau of Forestry, and $4 million goes to the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission. These funds are then distributed to townships, boroughs and municipalities responsible for maintaining dirt and gravel roads. Kevin Abbey, associate director of the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies, previously was director of the Transportation Committee in the Pennsylvania Senate, assisting Sen. J. Doyle Corman, sponsor of the bill, in drafting the legislation. A key component of the legislation is education and training for local organizations that maintain dirt and gravel roads. Penn State, through the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, has been providing education and training related to municipal roads for local officials for many years. Extending that training to include dirt and gravel roads was in keeping with Penn State’s outreach mission, Abbey said. “Over the first four years of the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies program, Penn State has trained 2,100 people from townships, boroughs, local organizations and several state and federal agencies,” Abbey said. “In calendar year 2001, the center trained 425 people.” The Pennsylvania Task Force on Dirt and Gravel Roads has worked closely with Penn State technical experts and training specialists to develop the new multimedia education and training program mandated by the 1997 legislation. The Environmentally Sensitive Maintenance for Dirt and Gravel Roads Program is a requirement for townships and municipalities seeking state funding under the dirt and gravel road program, Abbey said. Two instructors provide technical assistance and fieldwork training for each program, which is presented over two days to Pennsylvania County Conservation District managers, Quality Assurance Board members and advisers working with the State Conservation Commission’s Dirt and Gravel Roads Program. The instructor team is drawn from the group of Phil Dux, manager of field operations for the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies at Penn State; Woody Colbert, coordinator for the Dirt and Gravel Road Pollution Prevention Program, State Conservation Commission; and Alan Gesford and John Hopkins with the Pennsylvania Local Roads Program. Dux and Colbert are experts on environmental issues and natural systems, while Gesford and Hopkins have expertise on engineering issues. County Conservation Districts host the two-day training program. There are generally 30 to 60 participants for each session, Abbey said. “Research shows good maintenance costs less and is good for the environment,” Abbey added. “If you maintain dirt and gravel roads properly, it’s better for the roads and for streams.” Silsbee said, “Our philosophy is to work with nature. You can use natural forces to work for you in dispersing water.” The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies has built several demonstration projects highlighting environmentally sensitive approaches to maintaining dirt and gravel roads, so that dust and sediment do not run off roads and pollute nearby streams. The White Deer Creek Road project is one example, Abbey said. It is a joint effort of the center and the Bald Eagle State Forest. Ten different dust palliatives have been applied to a road, with a buffer section between each test area, to show side-by-side comparison and monitoring of these methods for reducing dust. Local officials get a firsthand opportunity to examine this site and other demonstration projects during one-day field classes. Center staff members show participants how various techniques for constructing and maintaining dirt and gravel roads work. For instance, the center recommends a special aggregate mix of crushed stone in a variety of coarse and fine sizes to create a dense matrix. “The aggregate mix has almost cement-sized material that packs together to form a hardened, stable surface,” Silsbee said. “The larger-sized materials form the road-bearing surface. The smallest particles, known as ‘fines,’ bind the mixture together. The emphasis is on stability — preventing fugitive particles from getting into streams.” “Once you reach people in these on-site programs in a common-sense way, they become very enthusiastic,” Silsbee said. Abbey noted the center also has a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to assist its project sponsors with transportation enhancements for rails-to-trails programs and bike paths. “The goal is to use environmentally sensitive and natural principles to work with Mother Nature, not against her, in constructing and maintaining these unpaved roads,” Abbey said. The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies is working with the School of Forest Resources and the Pennsylvania Growing Greener program to build an outdoor classroom in Penn State’s Stone Valley Experimental Forest in Huntingdon County. The classroom, to be used for outreach programs, is a work in progress, but 500 people have already visited the site, Abbey said. “The outdoor classroom will be a teaching tool for the real world,” he added. “We can show people what we’re talking about: road improvements using a variety of surface treatments, vegetation management, water control structures, grade breaks and culvert installations. We are actively seeking advice and participation from interested stakeholders, including state agencies, environmental groups, citizens groups and the private sector.” Efforts to stop sediment runoff from dirt and gravel roads began in the 1990s when the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited began examining the problem of sediment and silt choking aquatic habitats of trout. Trout Unlimited members discovered much of the pollution was coming from state- and municipal-owned roads, Silsbee said. They organized a grassroots effort involving 6,000 volunteers to map problem waterway sites throughout the state. The data Trout Unlimited volunteers collected is now entered in a geographic information systems (GIS) database. So far, 150 to 200 people from 65 affected Conservation Districts in Pennsylvania have been trained in how to access and use the database. Abbey sees great potential for this GIS database to serve as a model for creating databases for other activities. In 1993, the Pennsylvania Task Force on Dirt and Gravel Roads was created to assess the problem of dust and sediment pollution in waterways. The task force included members from 16 nonprofit organizations, businesses and local, state and federal government agencies. Former Gov. Tom Ridge and James Seif, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, recognized the education and outreach efforts of the task force by awarding the group the 2000 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies is continuing to build on the work of the task force, which now serves as an advisory board to the center. The center is collaborating with Barry Evans, senior research assistant, Penn State Environmental Resources Research Institute; and Dr. Walter P. Kilareski, professor of civil engineering and director, Local Technical Assistance Program, Pennsylvania Transportation Institute at Penn State. The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies also works with the Center for Watershed Stewardship at Penn State and a number of state and local advisory groups. In addition to Silsbee and Abbey, the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies’ staff includes Barry E. Scheetz, co-director; Dux; Steve Bloser, field operations specialist and manager of GIS systems; Dave Creamer, field operations specialist; and Kathy Moir, administrative assistant. The center is part of the Materials Research Institute and is housed in Research Unit D at University Park campus. The Environmentally Sensitive Maintenance for Dirt and Gravel Roads education and training program is the cornerstone of the center’s outreach programming. The center also produces technical bulletins and a newsletter. From April 8 to 10, the center will hold its annual maintenance workshop at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. “It’s exciting to be able to provide technical assistance to counties to improve the maintenance of dirt and gravel roads,” Silsbee said. “This is an example of a grassroots effort that’s really taken off.” | |||||
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