Raising a stink

July 24, 2008 05:51 am

— An article by Damian Gessel in the July 10 issue of The Daily Item was titled "Residents raise stink over sludge plan." It is true that adjacent home owners have raised a "stink" over Daryl Beiler's proposed sewage processing plant at 7146 Furnace Road in Mifflinburg, but should not this issue concern the entire Buffalo Valley?
Beiler's signed permit application, available for viewing at the Pennsylvania Department Of Environmental Protection in Williamsport, requests approval to haul "digested, dewatered, unstabilized" human waste sludge along the following route: Route 15 in Lewisburg to Route 45, west to Driesbach Church Road, south to Furnace Road, then west to the plant site just beyond Skunk Hollow Road.
He proposes to accept sewage sludge at an average of 600 tons, up to a maximum of 800 tons, per day. An average of 52 tractor trailers, tri-axle dump trucks, and other containment vehicles are to haul the sludge into the plant each day. Some sludge will come from Pennsylvania; some may come from neighboring states and/or Canada. An additional average of 33 trucks per day are to haul lime and lime products to the plant.
Buffalo Valley residents should consider the risk, noise, congestion, smell, and wear and tear on our roads that Mr. Beiler's plant traffic would create. His plant belongs next to an industrial park rail siding, rather than on some of the richest farm fields in Pennsylvania.
Many of us are raising our voices in opposition to the site of Beiler's industrial plant. Please join our cause to keep the Buffalo Valley beautiful by becoming informed and by respectfully speaking your mind.
Sam Crago,
Mifflinburg