North Union supervisors, residents continue to monitor water extraction plant plans
NUREMBERG – Township supervisors and residents are continuing to keep a close eye on a planned water extraction plant in the valley.
North Union Township Supervisors heard an update from one of those residents at their regular meeting last Monday.
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 in the Zion Grove area.
The February supervisors meeting was standing room only as representatives from the company were on-hand.
Shawn Kofluk, of Zion Grove, has been keeping a close eye on the matter and provided updates at both the March and April meetings of North Union Township supervisors.
He said he’s been in contact with state authorities and regulators, who he believed had been dismissive of concerns related to how much water was being taken out, saying they are more concerned about the quality of the water being extracted.
Solicitor Paul Domalakes said the county’s zoning ordinance covered the amount of water being extracted and it was struck down as “extralegal” and superseded by Department of Environmental Protection regulations.
“DEP, legislatively, is required to be concerned about the amount of water being extracted, not just the quality of the water,” Domalakes said.
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.
Jillian Olsen, president of Cherry Ridge Consulting, representing the company at the February meeting, 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.
In other business, supervisors approved a tax sale of a property within Cove Village.
They also approved the hiring of Advanced Code Consultants, of Sugarloaf, as code enforcement for the township.
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