COURT HOUSE — A Middle Township Zoning Board hearing on Albrecht and Heun’s controversial recycling and mining pit application for Indian Trail Road in Burleigh was re-scheduled from July 12 to Aug. 9.
The hearing, which has already been continued several times, will be held in the town-ship’s Elementary School No. 2 due to the large crowd expected to attend.
Albrecht and Heun and its subsidiary, Future Mining, have already gotten a use variance from the zoning board and have been approved for a mining license by the township, but now seek site plan approval.
Representatives of Friends of Indian Trail – a group of residents against the planned project – said they were not disappointed by the postponement.
“This will give us more time to get the word out to the people,” said Ralph Shuman, head of the community group. “The move to the new location shows that township officials know how big our group has gotten.”
“We’re taxpayers and we deserve to be heard.”
Shuman’s group opposes the mining company’s plan that would clear over 100 acres of wooded land on a 253-acre site off the Indian Trail.
The group contends the proposal would have detrimental effects for the surrounding community including noise pollution, air pollution, property devaluation, loss of recrea-tional areas, contamination of ground water and loss of water to the atmosphere.
Last week, Future Mining executive Phil Heun told the Herald that his environmental expert, Michael Logan, would testify that the group’s concerns are unfounded and the pro-ject would not be harmful to the surrounding community.
The Indian Trail group, however, also hired experts that disagree with Logan’s assessment of the site. Envrion, an internationally recognized environmental consultancy, performed noise tests and reviewed Future Mining’s environmental impact statement and found prob-lems on both fronts.
Noise tests from Albrecht and Heun’s current site on Goshen Road in Goshen found deci-bel levels on adjacent properties to be higher than noise ordinances in Middle Township al-low.
Similarly, Environ found the company’s environmental impact statement to be “generally inadequate in demonstrating that the proposed facility will not adversely impact the sensi-tive receptors near the facility.”
Shuman also informed the Herald of a 10-year-old township document – an environ-mental resource inventory – that classified the Indian Trail Swamp site as an area of “very high significance” for its watershed importance as well as rare plant and animal habitats.
The inventory was prepared for the township environmental commission with assistance from the county health department using a grant from the state Department of Environ-mental Protection.
“I can’t understand how the township would allow this type of project to continue in such an important area,” Shuman said. “Their own study says it’s a fragile area.”
Shuman and other Friends said they would continue to spread the word about possible negative affects of the project.
Prior to the July 12 hearing, they handed out over 1,200 informational flyers and plan to do the same before Aug. 9.
Shuman said he will also continue to drive and park his “moving billboards” – signs at-tached to his pickup truck and trailer that ask residents to go to meetings and oppose the gravel pit – around Middle Township to get the word out there.
“This project will affect all of us in Middle Township,” he said. “It’s about clean drinking water, clean air to breath and the quality of life we all deserve here.”
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
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