Dozens hear plans, raise concerns about water extraction plant proposed for Zion Grove
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The meeting room at the North Union Township Municipal Building in Nuremberg is packed on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.
NUREMBERG – Nearly three dozen people joined North Union Township’s board of supervisors to hear about plans for a water extraction plant in Zion Grove.
Jillian Olsen, president of Cherry Ridge Consulting, fielded questions on behalf of KH Springs before Monday’s township supervisors meeting.
A land development plan was presented to the Schuylkill County Planning Commission on the subject in January.
KH Springs and KH Holdings, of Exeter, intend to build a water withdrawal and loading facility on the former Kuzma property on Catawissa Creek Road near Labenberg Road. Olsen described KH Springs as a “small, family style business.”
According to the plans presented to the county, KH Springs plans to build a truck loading station, a water silo, and a driveway with maneuvering space for a tractor trailer. A second silo could be added later.
Olsen said the plant will simply extract water from an underground spring to be loaded into tanker trucks.
She said a DEP aquifer test determined the plant could sustainably pull 52 gallons per minute from the aquifer without depleting it. That equates to about a dozen trucks in a 24-hour period.
Trucks would access the plant via Catawissa Creek Road, a state highway, from the south and exit the same way, according to Olsen and the plans presented to the county. Concerns were raised regarding the impact of those trucks on local roads.
Neighbors expressed concerns over impacts to their wells and the aquifer. One man said the company should pay landowners in the area for extracting the water.
Olsen said the project is below the threshold which would require a permit from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.
The project, she said, has been in the works for decades, and would take at least two years to come to fruition from this point.
At times, neighbor reaction became heated.
“Everyone is upset, everyone is bombarding,” Supervisors Chairwoman Gail Zola said to the company’s representatives. “We’ve been through this, it’s not pleasant. You don’t live here. We’ve been through this and people have suffered the consequences from it.”
The plant still needs final approval from DEP to draw water.
In other business, township supervisors voted to purchase a new computer for the township secretary.
They are also interviewing candidates for code enforcement officer.
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