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Politics & Government

Chrin Proposal Kicked Back to Planning Commission

Recycling/composting plan must presented to the city's planning commission for comment before council can consider approving it.

 Speaking to the Easton Environmental Advisory Council Tuesday evening, Chrin Brohthers Inc. presented its vision for a recycling/composting plant that they hope to build near a city park.

“We're in the business (of building and trash hauling)...and a lot of that waste, I saw go to the landfill...and it really doesn't belong there,” company vice-president Greg Chrin told the council.

The company's proposal still has several weeks of review before city governing bodies, because Chrin’s request must go to the city Planning Commission.

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Though the facility would be located in neighboring Williams Township, the operation is proposed to take place within 900 feet of city property and by law must come before the planning commission for comment before the matter can be sent back to Easton City Council for any approval, said the city's planner, Becky Bradley.

The EAC will continue to be included in the recommendation process, she added.

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The project at its April 27 meeting by Mayor Sal Panto. But council removed the item from the agenda when Vice-Mayor El Warner questioned why the waiver request had not been reviewed by the EAC.

The site, a 5-acre portion of a two-parcel property comprising 100 acres along the Lehigh River owned by Chrin Brothers, currently takes leaves from Palmer and Williams Township, he said. Another portion of the property is home to an operating limestone quarry.

Three existing buildings lie on the 5-acre portion, which was formerly a dairy farm and rail yard, Greg Chrin told the council, and the company proposes to expand the composting operation to include food and other organic waste. The recycling part of the plan would include mulching wood from landscaping and construction sources.

The composting would take place outside, on curbed concrete pads, and the recycling operation would take place indoors, Chrin added.

Food waste, mostly produce from local grocery stores, would be mixed in with yard waste and composted together, he said. Recycling would mostly involve shredding clean wood into mulch and crushing gypsum wallboard into stones or fertilizer.

Sludge and liquid septic waste is not currently accepted by Chrin Brothers at their landfill site, and would not be accepted at this facility now or in the future, Chrin said.

“There are (permits) that specifically accept stinky things like sludge,” added Jillian Olsen, a project manager with environmental engineering firm EarthRes Group, saying that the company intends to seek a general permit for waste composting.

EAC member Patrick Janssen questioned the location and detail of the preliminary proposal.

“I think the sense is that we want systematic answers to systematic questions,” Janssen said. “Why does it need to be where it is?”

Chrin said the company currently hauls materials they would like to compost and recycle locally to Reading, and the four hour trip per truck is not efficient.

“There are other places (in the local area) we could put it. This is a low-value area. The others are high-value areas,” he said.

Warner, attending on behalf of city council, asked if there were other places on the property the facility might be located, where the proposal would not require a waiver from the city.

That would be a possibility after the limestone quarry is mined out, Chrin said, but that would be years from now.

“I think the council's not really worried about yard waste,” Warner said. “Food waste and noise concerns are more an issue.”

She added that if the city may grant a waiver that would be “for perpetuity” she felt it is better to get all the answers now.

EAC member Charles Elliott agreed.

“If (the possibility of) paper waste, sludge, offal, etc. could be taken off the table, I think that would make it easier,” he said.

Though the Easton Planning Commission will make the final recommendation to city council, the matter will again come before the EAC at their next meeting on June 7 at 5 p.m. in the Gold Room of the Eastonian.

It is also expected that the matter will come before the Easton Planning Commission for review at a second monthly meeting planned for June 15.

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