BY SUSAN BRYANT

sbryant@tnonline.com

Lowhill and Weisenberg residents voiced their objections for a proposed warehouse during a public hearing July 23 at the Germansville Fire Company.

The hearing addressed Core5 Industrial Partners of Harrisburg plan to construct a 312,000-square-foot warehouse at 2766 Route 100.

DEP Regional Manager Colleen Connolly opened the hearing.

“Tonight, we are hosting a public hearing to hear testimony from residents regarding an application for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and DES application for Core5 industrial Partners for 2766 Route 100 industrial site in Lowhill Township,” she said. “Core5 plans to construct a warehouse for storage purposes along Route 100 in Lowhill Township.”

Lowhill Supervisors’ Chairman Curtis Dietrich, testifying as a resident, said he had a few concerns about the proposed warehouse.

He said his No. 1 concern is the developer is proposing to use public water, which is not part of Lowhill Township’s Act 537 Plan and is not planned for extension to the proposed site.

“The absence of public water also calls into question the safety of the building’s occupants in the event of a fire,” he said.

“The absence of identification of an end user or tenant renders the developer’s plan for on-site sewage treatment impossible to approve as proposed.”

He added there are numerous plan deficiencies which have been identified by the township’s engineering firm regarding stormwater management and erosion/sedimentation control which has not been addressed by the developer.

“I ask that these concerns receive full review by the DEP and LCCD,” he said.

Michael Siegel, zoning consultant for Lowhill Township, addressed the social and economic justification in high quality waters.

“The SEJ has still not been adequately addressed by the applicant at this time,” Siegel said.

“The applicant clearly demonstrated its continual inability to address the social economic issues by the proposed stormwater discharge and for the proposed septic facility in an HQ watershed containing EV wetlands.

“Since a NPDES draft permit has been already issued for this proposed application, one of the conditions for issuance of the permit is to be in compliance with the NPDES permit conditions by the ability of the applicant is to secure Act 537 approval at the time of issuance of the final NPDES permit.

“There is currently no possible way the applicant can achieve this permit requirement as Lowhill Township has yet to approve the Act 537 Planning Module for this project and has no intention of approving it since there is no public water availability for the property for this proposed large industrial use, in violation of the 1966 Act 537 Lowhill Township Municipal Plan for industrial users in the Rural Village Zoning District.”

Joann Mertz, of Lowhill Township, spoke on the issues of antidegradation, septic and stormwater.

She said the applicant’s PCSM is arbitrary and capricious and serves no nondischarge requirements associated with antidegradation policies and DEP regulations.

“The applicant is proposing a septic field,” Mertz said. “This commenter believes there is absolutely no preventive measures proposed by the applicant’s engineers with assurances that if the septic system fails for any reason, that a direct discharge into the EV wetlands will not result through the hydraulic capture within the downstream proposed stormwater basin.

“The stormwater basin will simply become the conveyance channel and single discharge point for the proposed septic system.

“DEP must address this ‘short circuit’ situation by requiring greater horizontal isolation requirements for this septic system on steep slopes greater than 8 percent to the stormwater basin due to the poor infiltration rates as depicted in the geological report.”

Terry Lenhart, of Lowhill Township, was the next to testify.

“The applicant’s engineer once again plans to use an ABACT BMP as a discharge point for concentrated runoff,” Lenhart said. “This is a direct conflict with the Pa. antidegradation regulations.

“The applicant’s engineer used ad hoc language and misdirection to not answer how the project will handle peak runoff conditions from this site during frozen soil or saturated soil conditions.

“Utilizing ABACT methods for direct discharge points from concentrated peak runoff in frozen soil conditions will overwhelm the vegetation and cause excessive erosion to the downstream HQ watercourses with little to no evapotranspiration and have a huge impact on the existing forested riparian buffers.

“The applicant has not provided enough assurances that any stormwater management BMP control will work at this time during these frozen soil conditions.”

Lenhart also said the applicant has not provided subsurface groundwater calculations for the water volume involving the foundation drains for this warehouse.

“It is recommended by this commentator that the DEP suspend or deny all NPDES permits applications associated with this warehouse facility until such time the Pa. courts have settled the preliminary and or final land development approval by Lowhill Township.”

Jack Iannantuono, of Lowhill Township, was last to testify for the evening.

He said the applicant has responded to the DEP’s technical deficiency letter and geological conditions were only cursory addressed and hydrogeologic conditions ignored.

“At this site, the Martinsburg soils formation consists of shales and greywackes,” he explained. “When this rock unit weathers and decomposes to a clay state, it greatly impedes infiltration creating limiting zones.

“The groundwater table generally mimics the topographic surface.

“Since the groundwater table was never investigated, in the application, the flow patterns are generally unknown.

“The proposed basins are adjacent to the proposed septic system. Short circuiting from the septic to the basin should be considered.”

He said the development of this site as a 312,000-plus-square-foot warehouse, as has been proposed, is inconsistent with each of the six overreaching goals of the Northern Lehigh Multi-Municipal Plan and would produce irreversible damage the environment, economics, health, safety, and welfare of residents in Lowhill Township, and the NPDES permit should be denied.

Connolly ended the hearing.

“That concludes our hearing regarding the NPDES permit application for the Route 100 industrial site in Lowhill Township, Lehigh County, and permanent application for Core5 Industrial Partner,” Connolly said, adding the permit review process by the DEP will continue.

“We will wait until we receive an official transcript of this hearing from the stenographer and then we will prepare what is known as a common response document where the department will respond to the comments we heard here tonight.”