Our mission is to: “Monitor, Preserve and Improve the Little Juniata River and its tributaries as cold water resources”.
The next LJRA meeting will be Thursday Nov 14th at 7PM at Marzoni’s in Altoona.
The tentative agenda is:
The minutes from the Sept 12th 2024 meeting can be downloaded here.
The LJRA replaced vegetation on Sept 7th that was destroyed when a sewer pipe was repaired across Sandy Run, an important tributary of the J. Trees were planted by 18 volunteers. Thank you to Angie for organizing and arranging for the delivery of trees.
8PM Mazoni’s in Altoona.
Agenda:
Bells Gap run is a significant tributary to the LJRA. It’s potential to support a cold water fishery was limited by top release from the reservoir’s dam. We received the excellent news that the old dam was replaced with one that will allow for bottom release from the Bells Gap Reservoir. The LJRA has been encouraging the Altoona Water Authority (AWA) to provide for bottom release of this, and other, dams in the watershed. You can read Mark Nale’s reporting of the change and additional information using the following links:
There will be no July meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for August 8th at 7PM. Agenda to be published closer to the date
Eric Oliver received the 2024 Friend of the River Award at the LJRA banquet held on June 8th. Eric has been involved in and led many water monitoring projects in the watershed, including at Bells Gap Run and at the Rutter’s construction site. His monitoring efforts at the Rutter’s site are particularly noteworthy and have led to fines and corrections during its construction. He was instrumental in writing grants to fund the monitoring effort. Congratulations, Eric, and we are lucky to have such a dedicated friend of the river.
The minutes from the June Meeting can be downloaded here.
We are sad to announce that former Director of the LJRA John Bennis, formally of Hollidaysburg, has passed away after a courageous battle against cancer at the age of 69. John was a dedicated member of the board and a strong supporter of the LJRA. He was an early Director who gave willingly of his time and energy to improve the river. We will miss him.
You can read his obituary here https://www.richardsonfs.com/obituary/John-Bennis
Yesterday during a river tour with a new LJRA member, Bill witnessed 2 large excavators at the Old 6th Avenue Road bridge in Pinecroft, crossing over Sandy Run, a Class A wild Trout stream and High Quality Cold Water listed stream. They had built a road through Sandy Run using soil from the streambank. They have 2 small culvert pipes that are barely keeping up with the flow and creating a muddy pool behind the improvised road. We spoke with the engineer in charge and learned that they will be digging up a large section of sewer main from the stream bed, today. Then installing a replacement section which will take 3 or 4 days. The makeshift culvert will surely wash out with a heavy rain, delivering sediment into the upper river. This main is not leaking it is, in their words, sagging and requires frequent cleaning. We are challenging their permit terms and will seek to minimize the impact on this major cold water resource for the upper river.
If you see something unusual in the river or its tributaries, please contact Bill or if its a serious immediate threat to the river contact local authorities