CENTER TWP — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection received plans Friday for a water run-off fix at the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Clinic on Duffy Road.

Nov. 15 was Cambridge Healthcare Solutions' deadline to submit plans to the DEP detailing how it was going to correct poor water management at the clinic. The drainage correction is long-sought by both the township's board of supervisors, who worry it will disrupt downstream homes and potential nearby development, and neighboring property owners, who say it's damaging their land.

The plans arrived Friday, according to DEP spokesman Tom Decker.

David Heath, the township's engineer, described his understanding of the plans to Center Township's board of supervisors at their latest meeting. He has discussed the plans with the engineers who are designing the fix.

“They have now moved to installing an underground stormwater facility,” Heath said.

The clinic was finished in 2017. Cambridge built it with design work by engineering firm Stantec. The building cost $68 million, according to Stantec.

Cambridge is leasing the building to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The new plans detail a fix that would add about 1,400 feet of pipe under the back and side parking lots. Those pipes would be used as additional water storage.

Heath said they're also looking to plant some new trees and employ some other light-water management techniques.

Currently, drainage ponds on the site are supposed to hold excess water, but the ponds tend to simply pour water onto neighboring land instead. The ponds will remain, Heath said, in addition to the new pipes.

Members of the Herold family, who own adjacent farmland and sold some for the clinic to be built, worried Wednesday that the solution wouldn't solve their problems because it wouldn't eliminate the ponds.

Ron Flatt, chairman of Center Township's board, said he doubts the township will hold much power to alter the plans if the DEP approves.

Still, the township holds bond money, and Heath confirmed they've made it clear to the involved parties that the township wants a say in the matter. It would have to go through the township's planning committee process again, he said, meaning representatives will have to come to Center Township and field questions.

“They are still expected to submit it to us,” Flatt said.

Cambridge previously indicated it was seeking to have work finished this year. These new plans look to be targeting a spring 2020 construction schedule, Heath said.

The plans were due Friday per an agreement between Cambridge and the DEP. The two organizations reached an agreement in July to resolve the situation.

The DEP got involved over concerns about the run-off impact on streams and waterways.