The State College Borough Council approved plans for the design phase of a wetland project to be completed in Walnut Springs Park by the end of 2005.

Tom Johnston, the assistant vice president of Skelly and Loy, Inc., the consultants hired by the borough, said the wetlands has two purposes: to provide some water-quality filtration and to increase the diversity in the ecosystem and animal habitats.

Although the second phase was approved, the project is still being met with some resistance.

Bob Rightmyer, a Walnut Springs Lane resident, said that because the projected site for the wetlands is at the far end of the park, the water would not clean properly.

"There [would be] no filtration of the water that goes through Walnut Springs Park," he said. He added that because of the close proximity of a neighborhood, the wetlands would be less than 150 feet away from residents.

"It'll be in the borough's park, but in residential backyards," Rightmyer said.

Johnston said one of the issues Skelly and Loy Inc. has addressed in its study is that of urban and residential runoff, which happens when certain contaminants get into the water supply.

"There isn't one individual problem," he said. "Cumulatively ... they start to gang up on the biological system."

Mark Whitfield, the director of public works for the borough, said the wetland project was part of the 1991 master plan and study for the park.

Whitfield said the funding for the project was given to council as a Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener grant in 2001 for a project involving the Westerly Parkway storm water reservoir.

He said the $100,000 grant was not enough for the project, so a steering committee brought up the wetland project as a possible alternative plan.

"A majority of the steering committee felt it was in character with the park and the scheme of the park," he said. "There are a lot of benefits to having a wetlands."

Whitfield said the wetlands would purify water naturally, and the two concerns of odor and mosquitoes involving the construction of a wetland had been put to rest.

"Mosquitoes can't breed in wetlands because there's no stagnant water," he said. He added that the phase two design would "ensure there is no stagnant water."

Borough Arborist Alan Sam said construction would start in August with a projected completion in September.

"Getting permits is the longest process," he said. "They approved the plan that Skelly and Loy did so now we move forward."