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Army leader questions plant
safety
By Leah Farr, September 20,
2005.
The deputy commander of Letterkenny Army
Depot testified Monday for the first time that he is concerned about
potential problems of a proposed ethanol plant.
The 60- million-gallon Penn Mar ethanol plant
is to be built in the nearby Cumberland Valley Business
Park.
"One of my greater concerns is the growth and
investment in a facility the Army would be willing to make (in our
facility)," he said. "Would decision-makers in D.C. invest money
into the depot if it had an ethanol plant nearby? Probably
not."
Railroad a worry
Gray said part
of the depot sits within 2.5 miles of the plant and would have to be
evacuated in the event of an accident at the Penn Mar
facility.
"How do I evacuate my people out of there?" he
said, noting that at least 95 percent of Letterkenny's 2,800
employees work within the 2.5-mile evacuation zone.
A rail
line that would be used by Penn Mar cuts through part of the depot's
land and creates other safety concerns for the base, Gray told Judge
Richard Walsh during his testimony in Franklin County Court.
Gray said three train derailments over a
one-week span across the United States have him wondering if
transporting ethanol near an ammunition facility is
safe.
Ethanol, gasoline and other supplies would be
transported within 75 feet of a "prime building" at the depot, he
said.
The plant is also near depot facilities that house
bullets, rockets and 2,000-pound bombs.
Fred Antoun, attorney
for Citizens for a Quality Environment, asked Gray if those
materials "are ready to go bang?"
"Pretty much," Gray
replied.
Permanent stay
considered
All day Walsh heard testimony about the
potential harm the ethanol plant would have on county residents, the
environment and the business community.
Walsh is deciding
whether a temporary stay he placed in April on Penn Mar Ethanol LLC
of York should be permanent.
Citizens for a Quality
Environment claims it needs the stay until the court rules on
whether the plant is a permitted use in the heavy industrial zone
where is it to be located.
Without the stay, "the township is
going to rubber-stamp this plan," Antoun told Walsh.
Scott
Welsh, project manager for Penn Mar testified that delaying the
project would cost several million dollars a year for the company.
Its current operating costs are about $40,000 per month, he
said.
The $85 million dollar plant would benefit the
community, Welsh said, by creating a market for farmers and
providing an alternative fuel to petroleum.
D. Reed Anderson,
legal council for Penn Mar, argued that the company couldn't address
citizens' concerns until the stay was lifted.
Walsh will hear
closing arguments from the attorneys by Friday. He did not say when
he would rule on the stay.
Another hearing has been set for
October to hear arguments on land use.
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