Public Hearing Comments

Draft NPDES Permit No. PA0276120

Proposed AQ Plan Approval 48-00111A
Slate Belt Heat Recovery Center LLC
Plainfield Township, Northampton County
August 12, 2019

Good evening. My name is Jack Embick, and I am here tonight as counsel on behalf of
Plainfield Township, in connection with Slate Belt Heat Recovery Center project. With me
are four of the Township's consultants, who will address various issues associated with the
draft AQ Plan Approval and the revised draft NPDES Permit being considered for the
SBHRC project.

My comments address three important issues, as follows.

First, the land development and zoning process at the Township level is not complete.
Final Departmental action on the permits should not occur until the local land development
process is complete. Important permitting issues and permitting provisions may become
apparent as the land development process unfolds. I say this with confidence, because the
local land development review process has already yielded, for example, a valuable draft
nuisance mitigation and control plan, which we hope the Department is considering
seriously as an important addition to the permits. Further, the Township believes the
applicant has not yet demonstrated compliance with all local requirements.

In addition, it is my understanding that representatives of the Department have urged the

Township to act favorably on the land development application. This is inappropriate for a
number of reasons, and the Department should allow the Township to complete freely the
land development process according to the provisions and requirements of its local
ordinances and the Pa. Constitution. If the Department wants to comment on the pending
land development application, we urge the Department to submit publicly its comments so
that the Township decision makers and the public may receive them, just as we are doing
tonight for the Department at this public hearing.

Second, in connection with the land development process, the Township requested that the
applicant perform an environmental impact study, in order to provide the Township
decision makers with the information they needed to ensure that the Township ordinances
were complied with, and the mandate of Art. 1, Sec. 27 of the Pa Constitution was
maintained. We asked that the applicant perform the following:

1. Conduct a study, in advance, and identify the current, cumulative, and future effects
ofadverse environmental impacts ofall activities associated with the proposed use.
The study must identify and assess direct and indirect environmental effects that can
be negative or positive; identify and assess impacts that are immediate, short-term or

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 long-term; and which impacts can be incremental, compounding over time, or develop
over the passage ofyears; and
2. Determine whether and to what degree the effects or impacts will infringe
unreasonably upon or violate the protected rights and values (air, water, scenic,
historical, natural, and esthetic) or unreasonably cause actual or likely deterioration
ofthe listed values

The Applicant has so far refused to perform such a study.

We are not aware that the Department has required such a study either in connection
with its multi-program evaluation and review of the proposed project. We think the
information may be important for both the Township and the Department to assure
compliance with the mandates of the Pa. Constitution. In addition, because the
Township's consultants have uncovered various areas where the design and
monitoring of the proposed project can be significantly improved, it is clear to us that
the issuance of a general solid waste permit covering these activities is simply
inappropriate. Individual, as opposed to general, permits should be required for each
one ofthese kinds of facilities. Further, an environmental impact study should be
required for the project.

The Township is not aware that the Department has evaluated the environmental
impacts of the project as an integrated whole and in the current geographical and
social context of the proposed site. The Department must avoid a temptation to
consider the proposed permits in a piecemeal fashion.

In addition, we are not aware that the Department has yet responded to the important
public comments and concerns submitted at the public hearing which occurred on
November 7, 2018, almost nine months ago. The Department needs to communicate
more effectively and in a timely manner with the public about the proposed project
and its advantages and disadvantages.

Finally, the Township urges the Department to require a Chapter 105 permit for the
proposed additional fill to be added to Sedimentation Basin #2, also known as the
former Doney II Quarry. The Township's consultant, Jason Smith, will provide
additional technical details on this issue.

One significant reason why the Department should utilize the Chapter 105 permitting
process for the old quarry is this: the old Doney II Quarry was simply repurposed as
an erosion and sedimentation control facility and as a stormwater control facility for
the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill. However, as far as we can tell, the only
significant so-called engineering that was performed was to dump thousands of cubic
yards of waste slate into the pond. The pond is directly connected to the groundwater
and the Waters of the Commonwealth, and nobody to date has been able to articulate

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to the Township's satisfaction what its actual configuration is, how it functions, and
more importantly, how its use protects and maintains water quality and the waters of
the Commonwealth, including the adjacent special protection waters of Waltz Creek
and Little Bushkill Creek. The old quarry may provide some E&S and stormwater
control functions, but nobody seems to have defmitive answers. The Chapter lOS
permitting process will provide, document and confirm those answers, if they exist.

In conclusion, the Township asserts that SBHRC and Synagro must be as attentively
focused on environmental control, and pollution and nuisance prevention as they are
on the transportation of sewage sludges and the production of Class A Biosolids,
should the permits be issued.