In an 11th hour move, Limerick's solicitor, Joseph McGory, Jr., issued a prepared statement on their consideration of a trash to ethanol plant as follows: "...the township has concluded that the technology is not sufficiently advanced to warrant the township's pursuit." (Full text of the article in today's Phoenix will be posted on this thread.)
Many of us, even with limited knowlege of the concept, could have counseled the township supervisors before they spent dime one.
I have to give credit for this reversal and small "victory" to the activists from ACE - The Alliance for a Clean Environment, Elaine Milito, Concerned Citizens of East Vincent, and many other concerned people throughout the area, including the local newspapers and blog owners who have successfully helped to inform the public in our area.
This situation, however, is not over.
Equally fraught with a diverse set of problems are the alternatives to the trash to ethanol proposal which are the bio-diesel, and gasification plants. A quick internet search will show the concerns dealt with in other locations due to these power plants.
Come to the Limerick Township meeting tonight at 7 p.m. and voice your opinion!
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This comment was placed on another thread and deserves to be repeated here:
Anonymous said...
Zoning Hearing in Limerick Township
January 24, 2008 at 7 PM
Limerick Township Building, 646 West Ridge Pike
Limerick Township will still be holding the hearing tonight on its proposed zoning change! If the zoning is changed tonight any power plant, including the Trash to Ethanol Plant, will have easy access to the Publicker site where this plant is being proposed. The two clauses being removed from The HI district leave no restrictions on public or private plants at the Publicker site which will remain in the HI district.
In addition, the creation of the new HI/E district, within the current HI district, and surrounding the nuclear plant has removed the original condition requiring a power plant to be within one mile of the nuclear plant and has removed the whole clause concerning Community Impacts.
The petition requests the Supervisors to wait until they have thoroughly studied the health and safety issues involved with this plan and to definitely wait for the results of an Environmental Impact study before changing the ordinance.
Please come this evening with your comments, and sign the petition requesting further study of the reasons for and the consequences of this ordinance change.
January 24, 2008 9:18:00 AM EST
am very concerned that they are doing nothing more than throwing everyone off guard. We may feel we are safe because the trash to ethanol plant is no longer one of the options they are considering. However, the township is still considering other power plant options. So don't be fooled! Tonight's meeting will still discuss the zoning changes which, once put in place, will open the door for any type of power plant to be built on that property.
I hope everyone will still come to tonight's meeting and fight the zoning change!
From the Phoenix today:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Posted on Wed, Jan 23, 2008
Limerick ends stink, cans trash-to-ethanol
SUPERVISORS PLANNING TO MEET TONIGHT
By Michael Hays, Special to The Phoenix
LIMERICK — One day before a planned public hearing on an important zoning change, the township’s attorney announced that a trash-to-ethanol plant is off the table.
A prepared statement issued by Joseph McGrory Jr., solicitor for Limerick, states: “The township is always interested in pursuing opportunities to generate revenue to reduce taxes. The township invested considerable time investigating the trash-to-ethanol technology and the township has concluded that the technology is not sufficiently advanced to warrant the township’s pursuit. The township will not pursue a trash-to-ethanol plant.”
No such plants are known to be operating in the world.
The supervisors have been trying to purchase the abandoned Publicker property on Linfield Trappe Road. In October 2007, they announced that “trash-to-resources,” or the conversion of municipal solid waste into an alternative fuel, was under consideration for the site. A natural gas-fired electric turbine, in addition to bio-diesel, have also been listed as options by Supervisor David Kane.
Mike Pincus, a spokesman for the board, could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
Tonight at 7 p.m., the board holds a hearing to consider several zoning changes impacting the heavy industrial (HI) zoned areas of Limerick. 99 percent of HI land in the township is split between the Exelon Nuclear Generating Station property and Publicker’s 125 acres.
Under the proposed change, public utility plants would be permitted closer to the Exelon generating station than previously allowed. Currently, a power generator cannot be within one mile — measured from the nearest property line — of the power plant. Publicker is approximately one mile from the Longview Road entrance to the power plant.
Limerick supervisors will also vote on the creation of a new district — heavy industrial/energy.
A section of the law creating HI-E states the health, safety and welfare of township residents “also depends on maintaining sustainable energy systems within the township, and that this ordinance will contribute to a regional energy production and use.”
Publicker formerly housed the Kinsey Distillery and an antifreeze packaging operation prior to closing in 1986. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is seeking a court judgment worth $482,471.45 for the owner’s negligence in cleaning up the contaminated site and DEP’s response to a fire there in October 2005.
Among the documented pollutants in the soil are PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), lead, arsenic, cadmium, trichlorobenzes and cyanide, DEP states. The presence of copper, iron, lead, zinc, beryllium and cyanide were found by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Schuylkill River in 1992, although DEP has said it isn’t certain that river pollutants came from Publicker operations. The site is eligible for funding under the state’s Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA).
George Horvat of DEP said that the Publicker property is “not grossly contaminated.” It is owned by Eugene Ostreicher. A court hearing in Harrisburg concerning DEP’s requested fine is scheduled for Jan. 31 at 1:30 p.m., spokeswoman Debra Fries said.
The supervisors meet in the township building at 646 Ridge Pike.
With all those people speaking out against the change, they voted for the change anyway. Do they not care about the future of their township? Sure, no ethanol plant, but now the door is open for other power plants....thanks board. I've got all your names written down and will remember them come election time.
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