DEP officials get earful at hearing on proposed Slate Belt sewage-sludge treatment plant
State regulators looking into a proposed $26 million sewage-sludge treatment plant in Plainfield Township heard Monday night from township consultants, environmentalists and concerned residents, some of whom urged the state to deny the project permits needed to operate.
Synagro Technologies Inc., Waste Management Inc. and a group called Green Knight Economic Development Corp. are behind the plant which would be inside Waste Management’s Grand Central Sanitary Landfill.
Synagro would bring an estimated 20 truckloads of 400 tons of processed sewage sludge to the property a day and dry the waste using heat from Green Knight’s methane-to-energy plant on landfill property, or natural gas that is also on site. The plant would convert the waste into Class A biosolids, with the product usable as fertilizer or fuel.
Company officials and representatives tried to reassure the audience of about 100 people that they are doing everything to mitigate environmental concerns regarding the project called the Slate Belt Heat Recovery Center.
“We believe that the efforts we have undertaken over the last three years to address these concerns demonstrates our commitment to being a good business neighbor in the community,” project developer Jim Hecht said. “We also believe that our current project design and controls now addresses these local concerns and fully protects the public health and welfare, as well as the local air, land and water environment.”
But a mostly skeptical audience urged DEP to deny the permits.
“How can you give air and water-quality permits when you don’t know the material that’s coming in” asked Howard Klein, the sludge liaison for nearby Lower Mount Bethel Township.
“The bottom line is this is a bad, bad proposal,” Klein said, who also questioned what the sludge would contain.
Nolan Perin, the former owner of Grand Central, argued the project is a viable alternative to ridding sludge from landfills.
“But if they [Synagro] cause me problems, I will be the loudest voice in the room,” Perin said.
Township resident Gail Weber questioned whether the project would harm the streams near the plant, including Waltz Creek and a tributary running to the Little Bushkill Creek.
“I realize they are considering a containment, but if not contained … any runoff anywhere in this plant without proper containment is a travesty waiting to happen,” she said. “We are destroying our ecological system.”
Jack Embick, a special attorney hired by the township, said DEP should allow the township to complete its land development approval before ruling.
“The township thinks Synagro and Slate Belt must be intently focused … on environmental control … as it is on the transportation of sludge and the production of biosolids,” Embick said.”
The hearing gave the public a chance to speak on Synagro’s air quality plan and a revised application to its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit for its industrial stormwater discharge.
In addition to those permits, the operators, which refer to the plant the Slate Belt Heat Recover Center, have also applied to DEP for a Waste Management Permit, and Grand Central Landfill in Plainfield Township has applied for a modification of its existing Waste Management Permit.
All four permit applications remain under review by DEP. Spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said the agency will weigh the comments and issue a public document at an undetermined date.
The proposed plant has been on the books for nearly three years, with Synagro and other officials laying out the case to township planners, the state and the public. But the plans have drawn a long list of questions and reams of documents from officials reviewing the
Synagro is seeking preliminary land development and subdivision approval from the township. Planners must issue a recommendation to supervisors, which could happen as soon as next month. Township supervisors would then have the final vote on the project.