Residents: Plant already affecting water supply

By Karen Blackledge
The Danville News

June 27, 2008 08:19 am

— WASHINGTONVILLE -- Dwayne Brady can barely stand to take a bath because of the smell of sulfur in his water.
While the resident of 44 Water St. said the smell arose after U.S. Gypsum drilled test wells for their new $200 million plant in Washingtonville, Michael Brownell, chief of water resources management for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, said it is unlikely to be related to the drilling.
Brownell and other officials involved in the development of the plant spoke to residents Thursday during a meeting about the company's request to dig a well more than 700 feet deep.
"This formation naturally has sulfur in it," Brownell said.
That revelation didn't exactly make residents feel any better.
Kathy Brown, of 19 Church St., said she used to change her water filter twice a year and now changes it every two weeks because of sulfur. "Every time they do something out there, I have to change a filter," she said.
Of the 30 residents attending, about half a dozen raised their hands indicating a sulfur problem that didn't exist before.
Walter Laidacker, who lives about four miles from Washingtonvile, said his chickens stopped drinking well water following the drilling. Brownell said he didn't believe drilling caused that because testing was over in 72 hours and the birds still refuse to drink the water.
U.S. Gypsum has said publicly that it wants to be a good neighbor and does not want to cause trouble for Laidacker or the rest of the area's residents.
The new wallboard-production facility, where up to 170 employees will begin working next month, has already received approval through PPL utilities to draw water from the Susquehanna River or Lake Chillisquaque. U.S. Gypsum wants to dig a well as another source because the plant will use up to 432,000 gallons of water per day in production, but they need to gauge the affect on the public first.
Brownell said U.S. Gypsum will be surveying people in the area about their wells, and project manager Chris Huron said people should "stay tuned" and that the company is "reaching out to folks to help give us information."
The commission called Thursday's meeting because it received three phone calls with concerns following the well tests. "We felt we should have heard more comments from the public," Brownell said.
After U.S. Gypsum conducted two recent aqua tests, it was determined that residential wells could drop by 10 to 20 feet, Brownell said. The company is preparing a mitigation plan on what it would do if wells were adversely affected.
Well water levels were also on the minds of residents.
Washingtonville resident Frank Dombroski said a couple of years ago when a pig farm was proposed, he was told "whoever drills the deepest, gets the water."
John Marr, who has a well 58-feet-deep on his farm near Turbotville, asked what to do if he runs out of water. Brownell told him to call the commission since it can determine if pumping at the plant caused it.
Water Street resident Brett Levan said the average Washingtonville well depth is 60 to 90 feet and his well is only 23 feet deep. If he has to drill a new well, he said he would, "but I'm not paying $5,000."
Brownell assured Levan there would be no cost for residents because commission regulations protect existing water users. U.S. Gypsum would have to pay the price to fix something it broke.
Connie Kuziak, of Derry Township, felt all the water should be drawn from the river, a decision that would add an extra step in the process because the water would have to be cooled.
"It would take more investment on their part, but if they really want to be a good neighbor, they don't need to put our wells at risk," Kuziak said.
"We could use water from the river for five years and never pull from a well," U.S. Gypsum Plant Manager Schaffer said. But, he said it's difficult for them to "lay all our eggs in one basket" with one water source.
At times, the plant may need a back-up source that might mean 10 percent of the water will be pulled from a well, 50-50 from a well and another source or all from a well, he said.
According to Schaffer, the back-up source will not make or break the project. But the plant, which will use artificial gypsum created at the nearby PPL plant to create its product, seeks to withdraw 350,000 gallons per day from one well. In comparison, an average above-ground pool holds 20,000 gallons of water.
With that amount of water being drawn from the local system, it's no surprise that another meeting will be held once more well information is gathered.
The gallon total also caused a different kind of concern for Derry Township resident Kit Kelly.
Kelly was concerned about the plant drawing water from a deep aquifer and relieving pressure from the bottom, allowing water in an upper aquifer to draw-down. Brownell said the last test run showed a leakage around a pumping well that they are very concerned about. "We want to make sure we resolve this before issuing an approval," he said.
Brownell expects his staff to make a recommendation at the river basin commission's Sept. 11 meeting at Bucknell University.
Schafer says U.S. Gypsum, a 105-year-old company and one of the world's largest manufacturer of drywall products and joint compound, will be waiting for the results. The last thing it wants to do is smear it's good name
"You are our neighbor," Schafer said. "We want to embrace the community. We're glad to talk to all of you and answer your questions and concerns. We're here for the long-term and not here to make a buck,"
E-mail comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com.

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