Residents continue to be wary of a plan to build a new asphalt plant at the Curtis Industrial Park in the Town of Ballston.
Nearly 100 residents attended a Planning Board meeting on Wednesday, Dec 14, where experts and officials from Callanan Industries Inc., a sister company of Dolomite Products Co., presented their plans for a third time. At the meeting, experts hired by the company addressed potential environmental and traffic impacts, health risks, safety issues and noise concerns.
The meeting lasted more than three hours.
“I think the primary concern is the impact of traffic on this project and we have been asked to provide additional information,” said Stephanie Ferradino, a lawyer for Callanan Industries, Inc.
Planning Board Chairman Richard Doyle, said considering the amount of concerns still voiced by citizens at the meeting, he does not feel the board is ready to vote on the project at its meeting in January.
“I know I don’t have huge environmental concerns, but residents do,” he said.
The asphalt plant would sit on a 10-acre site on Route 67 between two small New York State Department of Environmental Conservation wetland pockets and small isolated wetlands.
The plant would not be within the Ballston Lake Watershed, but is within the Round Lake Watershed.
Dr. Richard Hirst, a consultant from H2H Associates with expertise in geological and environmental services, said he has found no adverse effects to the lake’s ecosystem mostly due to the topography of the site in relation to the lake. Also, liquid asphalt, which is used to mix the batches with aggregates like sand and stone, hardens at ambient temperatures so there is little risk of it soiling any groundwater.
“The proposed action has the potential to have an adverse impact to air and groundwater quality. However, assuming the facility will be constructed and operated with all applicable federal and state environmental regulations, then a ‘significant’ adverse impact would not be anticipated,” he said.
Some residents grumbled at this statement, feeling the chance of any environmental impact was too much of a risk.
Robert O’Neal, a consultant with Epsilon Associates, Inc. with expertise in noise impact assessments and air quality modeling, said emissions from the plant would be minor, especially since the state regulates and oversees emissions with monthly and annual record keeping to “ensure compliance.”
O’Neal said there is not odor emitted from the company’s plant in Watervliet and any odor or emissions that occur would disperse by the time it reached the nearest resident a half-mile away.
Resident David Pierce, a member of the local Citizens for a Clean Environment group, said during the public comment period that research he’s done online shows thousands of tons of chemicals are released into the air each year by asphalt plants.
He said according to research provided to him by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, “hazardous air pollutants are emitted by asphalt plants, either as vapor or particles. Some particles are captured by hazardous pollutant control devices, but some are not.”
Ferradino said his research is most likely based on information concerning emissions from petroleum byproducts during the creation of liquid asphalt, a process that would not occur at the plant in Ballston.
The information provided by the BREDF also said one such chemical emission from hot mix asphalt plants was methylene chloride, a know carcinogen. However, a study done by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on hot mix asphalt plant emissions in 2000 showed none of the chemical is expected to be emitted during typical batch and drum HMA processes.
So far, the board and Callanan Industries have been using the standards set by the State Environmental Quality Review Act as a guide. At its Jan. 26 meeting, the board will decide if it feels an environmental impact study is needed before moving ahead with the plan further.
Ferradino has tried to prove that any further study on the impact of the environment is unneeded because research by their experts proves there is not “significant” environmental impact as defined by SEQRA.
“Most officials from the town agree as well,” she said
One woman who spoke at the meeting said she and her neighbor both operate day care facilitates. She was recently notified by her licensor that she could be in danger of losing the license to operate her day care if an environmental impact study is not performed.
“If I even live near a laundromat I have to have an environmental impact study,” she said, adding she felt air quality is the most precious resource and the board should think of the health of the town’s children.
Doyle said he believes the project does meet the criteria for an environmental study, but a more important concern right now is the plant’s impact on traffic.
During its peak operation time in the morning, the plant has the potential to serve seven to nine trucks per hour and is expected to operate 150 days a year. All of the paperwork submitted to the board show the plant as producing 30,000 tons of asphalt per year, though an official from Dolomite Products Co. said at the meeting the Watervliet plant produces between 100,000 and 150,000 tons a year and the Ballston plant will have the same capabilities.
Doyle said any additional production of asphalt would have a greater effect on traffic, from the size of the trucks to how many are on the road at a time.
“We may have to look at a limit for the plant,” he said.
The board agreed the traffic study prepared by the company’s experts was not thorough enough and more information was needed. Ferradino said the next presentation will focus primarily on the issues of traffic since the traffic engineer hired by the town had not had a chance to look over the plan before the most recent presentation.
The company did agree to pay for a left-hand turn lane to be installed for trucks traveling to the industrial park from the Northway, but the board felt more information was needed on trucks traveling west toward Ballston once leaving the park, instead of east toward Malta.
“Traveling on Brookline is an issue because if you want to go west, that turn is difficult and the trucks are slow,” said Doyle. “It’s not like they can just dart across like cars.”
Board member Joan Eddy suggested at the meeting that the company look into potentially adding another turn lane for trucks wishing to turn onto Brookline so as not to disturb morning commuters or school buses taking children to school. She said the wait to turn onto the road in the morning is already long without the additional trucks.
Ferradino said she felt the project was appropriately sited and if the board decides not to allow the plant by built inside the Curtis Industrial Park, she doesn’t know what type of facility would be allowed in there.
“We are not trying to hold the process up, but we want to make sure we cover all the points,” said Doyle. “Our job is to make sure we cover all the items and determine there are no impacts to residents or the community.”
