Township revising law to regulate food waste use on farms
An ad hoc committee was formed last month to make changes
In the wake of the township’s reversal and rescinding of permits that would have allowed the construction of a concrete farm waste pit off Bethel Church Road, supervisors are considering an ordinance that would further regulate similar activity township-wide.
However, the supervisors tabled voting on a five-page draft ordinance last month after residents asked that an ad hoc committee to review and revise the draft be formed.
That board agreed to create that committee with the unwieldy name of the “Ad Hoc Advisory Steering Committee for Food Processing Residual and Water Quality Matters.”
According to Township Manager Eugene Briggs, the steering committee will include a member of the planning commission, a member of the agricultural security area committee, a member of the citizens’ group East Coventry Advocacy and two at-large members.
The application of “food processing residual” is recognized by Pennsylvania courts as a legitimate farm use and a “normal agricultural operation,” but the plan to build the 120-foot wide, 16-foot deep concrete pit designed to hold as much as 1.4 million gallons of food waste at the former Kolb Farm raised protests from throughout the township last fall.
The proposal by Nolt Trucking, based in Lititz, was ultimately suspended and the company retracted an offer to participate in a public meeting on their proposal.
At that meeting, held in October at Ridge Fire Company and attended by more than a hundred people, the supervisors rescinded the zoning permit and the legal agreement with Spring City Farms, as the site is now called.
Subsequently, the township drafted an ordinance establishing set-backs for the application of the substance, used primarily as fertilizer, from property lines; groundwater wells, streams and wetlands.
The draft also prohibited the application of food waste on slopes greater than
a 15 percent grade, and applied further controls on steeper cropland, including in-ground injection as opposed to surface application.
Groundwater was also required to be deeper than four feet for the application to be allowed, under the provisions of the draft. The draft also set fines of $1,000 for each violation.
It is not immediately clear how long the newly formed committee will take to further refine the draft ordinance or when it will be brought back before the township supervisors for consideration.