McELHATTAN - A group of Wayne Township residents, clearly not satisfied with a plan to just regulate wastewater treatment plants along the Susquehanna River in the township, offered the supervisors a new option Monday evening - an ordinance that would effectively ban nearly all such facilities.
The subject of treatment plants accompanies an expected spike in the number of natural gas production wells in Clinton County.
It has been a hot topic at Wayne Township meetings recently because a company has approached the state about building a wastewater treatment plant in the township, discharging into the Susquehanna River.
Yesterday's meeting proved no exception.
Under the township's "conditional use" proposal, the supervisors would establish "reasonably related" rules governing construction and operation of treatment plants, thereby providing protection for residents where no protection now exists, Solicitor Paul Welch Jr. said. Wayne Township would amend its zoning ordinance to allow the treatment facilities as a "conditional use" in three zoning districts -mixed use, light industrial and agricultural.
The citizens' counter proposal - while it is 11 single-spaced pages long - can be summed up in one sentence: "It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the treatment of waste water originating anywhere outside the Township of Wayne."
Nearly 90 residents showed up for a standing-room-only session with the supervisors, who again delayed passage of the in-house proposal, this time to examine and, perhaps, resolve the differences between the plan generated by the citizens and the ordinance written by Welch.
And just like last month, the majority of those who packed the municipal building to capacity want nothing to do with a new and potentially problematic facility in their community.
Welch again emphasized that no proposal for a treatment facility has been placed on the table at the township level, and any plans that might have been entered into an official record were submitted at state level to the Department of Environmental Protection.
Welch said he was gratified by the proactive approach taken by the group, but suggested at this stage they take their complaints to their state legislators and DEP. In the meantime, he said, the supervisors are acting proactively on behalf of those same citizens by attempting to pass an ordinance that would limit and regulate treatment plants which otherwise would get a free ride to construction because of the lack of regulations on a local level.
But the residents said they don't want it at all and they want the local law to reflect that sentiment.
Kathy Dershem acted as spokeswoman for the newly formed WRAP -Wayne Township Residents Against Pollution -and actually acted to create a meeting within the township meeting, calling upon people to speak and asking several to read sections of the WRAP plan while the supervisors opted to listen and take a less direct role in the proceedings.
Dershem rejected an offer by Supervisor Dave Calhoun when he suggested a small group of representatives sit down with the supervisors to iron out the differences in the two plans.
"This is what we want," she said. "We do not want this here at all."
"The people of Wayne Township understand that activities controlled by large corporations have and continue to cause damage to human and natural communities, including the imposition of harm to the safety, health and recreational enjoyment of natural water systems," Dershem said. "It is the people's responsibility to prohibit behavior that they deem to be destructive of the natural and human environment within the jurisdictions where they enjoy self-governing rights."
Another woman who spoke suggested the region where the plant might be located is near the site of the original Wayne Township settlement, and said the effort to create the plant appears to contradict other state efforts at conservation, including the Chesapeake Bay initiative, the Greenways recreational effort for the Susquehanna and the Rails-to-Trails to create outdoor opportunities and tourism in the region.
"This is a great exercise," Welch said. "I would urge you to speak to your representative and DEP."
That comment drew a response from Jenny Laubscher, who said she contacted state Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven, and state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown, and was rebuffed by a "form letter" from the former and received no response from the latter.
"Don't trust DEP," commented Bill Smedley, a Nipponose Township resident who owns a tree farm adjacent to the township line and has been a frequent environmental activist in the county in recent years. "These corporations are DEP's clients."
Smedley said there is some danger of legal action attached to passage of the citizen proposal, given its restrictive nature, but urged the supervisors to sign onto the plan anyway, saying they have a larger responsibility to the citizenship than to fear litigation.
Dershem encouraged the attendees to sign a petition supporting WRAP's view, and said all township residents, landowners and anybody renting or living in the township should have received a letter outlining details of the effort.
The situation, Supervisor Jim Maguire said, is this: A new, rapidly expanding industry will increase the number of gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania, specifically Central Pennsylvania, and a concurrent increase in water treatment plants will have to be built to deal with contaminated water from those drilling sites.
"The potential is for us (the state) to be an energy exporter in four years," Maguire said. "This is like placing a bowl of candy in front of a group of children. Is it going to go away? ... No. What we want is to pass an ordinance to protect the very things you're talking about."
According to DEP officials, one company has requested an NPDES industrial wastewater permit. The application from Central PA Water Treatment seeks to build a facility that would treat 504,000 gallons per day of gas well drilling wastewater and then discharge it to the river in Wayne. According to other local officials, there are three proposals being floated for wastewater treatment facilities in Clinton County to deal with drilling operations.
The plants would treat "frac" water generated by natural gas drilling after the discovery of natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale, an energy-rich layer of rock deep beneath the surface.
One of those facilities could land in Wayne Township, which presently has no regulations governing such operations.
"We are trying to find the answers," Maguire said, "but if we don't pass an ordinance we have no local control over this industry."
Barry Breon, who has also led the charge against the plant, urged attendees to participate in the Democratic process and to join WRAP, at one point holding up a placard with the group's name and a contact number for them to call to ask for more information. He said the group will meet in the township building at 6:30 p.m. Friday to share information with any interested parties.
The citizens who attended also noted the potential adverse impact a plant might have on wildlife, forests, fresh water and scenic vistas.
The industry uses and disposes of the massive amounts of water it needs to free gas trapped in the shale. The process, called "hydro-fracturing" or "fracing," involves pumping millions of gallons of pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground to pulverize the shale and release the gas trapped within it.
The water that returns to the surface is contaminated by salt and very low-level, naturally occurring radioactive material, which must be cleaned, and will require a large amount of truck traffic to transport the contaminated water to the plant and the resulting by-product sludge material off site.
The fact that Wayne is considering the permitted use under the "conditional" heading means that approval would not occur automatically, but would have to go before the township supervisors for a vote, even if the proposal meets all other requirements.
The supervisors are expected to examine the citizen proposal and revisit the subject at their June 15 meeting.
