PlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 21,1981
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
SEVEN VALLEYS - From all
outward appearances, Green
Valley is still a peaceful, pastoral
farming area, a rustic haven in
southwest York County’s North
Codorus Township.
Rows of orchard trees and
contours of grain and hay pattern
the rolling hills, and cows graze the
stream-sliced meadows.
But a bitter, a suspicious, a
gnawing frustration hangs like a
pall of smog over the residents of
this farm valley.
After a long, uncertain year, the
battle still rages between residents
of Green Valley and the operators
Citizen sentiment against a proposed York* County
hazardous waste burial site still runs high, as these silent
sentinels at the end of Green Valley offer their protest.
If you're looking lor a hog
manure handling system,
look to the people who specialise
Patz
Tank Spreader
GEORGE HEATH 472 Woodcrest Dr. Mechanicsburg. PA 17055 717-737-0002
Contact your nearest Patz dealer
ALEXANDRIA
MAX ISENBERG
814-669-4027
BALLY
LONGACRE
ELECTRIC
215-845-2261
BEDFORD
BENCE FARM
EQUIPMENT
814-623-8601
BELLEVILLE
MACLAY & SON
717-935-2101
CAMP HILL
LLOYD SULTZBAUGH
717-737-4554
IHAMBERSBURG
CUMBERLAND FARM
& DAIRY INC.
717-263-1965
of a proposed hazardous chemical
burial site.
After more than a year of public
hearings,- hours of research,
endless meetings, expensive legal
arrangements, the fate of the
dump site remains in limbo in the
courts of the land.
Residents of the area became
outraged during the summer of
1980 when they learned that a
permit to dump hazardous
chemicals* had been issued to
Sunny Farms, Ltd., a York sub
sidiary of Stabatrol, Inc., based in
Norristown. Another York firm,
Liqwacon, was to lease a portion of
the site for their own storage of
hazardous materials.
Mechanically Operated Underground Air-
Underground Transfer System Operated Transfer System
DISTRICT MANAGER
HAMBURG
SHARTLESVILLE
FARM SERVICE
215-488-1025
LEBANON
MARVIN J. HORST
DAIRY EQUIPMENT
MILLERSBURG
LANDIS
LABOR SAVERS
71^-692-4647
MILTON
LANDIS FARMSTEAD
AUTOMATION
717-437-2375
PIPERSVILLE
MOYER
FARM SERVICE
215-766-8675
•UARRYVILLE
SERVICE " P&S EQUIPMENT,
JAMES E. LANDIS INC.
717-786-4158 301-452-8521
V *
,'A.
9
Ise*
ll *
TERRE HILL
TERRE HILL
SILOCO. INC.
215-445-6736
MARYLAND DEALERS
HAGERSTOWN. MD
TRI-STATE
FARM AUTOMATION
301-790-3698
KENNEDYVILLE
PINDER SERVICE CO,
301-348-5263
LINEBORO, MD
WERTZ GARAGE, INC
301-374-2672
STREET, MD
Green Valley is pastoral sc&hte
Sunny Farms had previously eluded Elwin Farms in Payette
operated a solid waste landfill, County, which was in court over
which was shut down in 1976 by the zoning, Grove Landfill in Cum
state’s Department of En- berland County, where traces of
vironmental Resources, following arsenic and chromium were
numerous citizen conqflaints. reported to be found in nearby
Listed among the violations were streams, and Lyncott Corp. in
illegal open fires and disposal of Susquehanna Co., also under fire
liquid hazardous wastes. from the community.
What especially angered the On November 14, 1980, Waste
residents was the issuance of the Management, Inc., based in
chemical dumping permit to a Chicago, and reportedly the
known violator of dumping laws on largest hazardous waste disposal
land that they say is laced with old firm in the country, acquired
iron ore mines and on known Stabatrol and its various sites in
earthquake-prone ridges high Pennsylvania,
above the farmland valley. In March, 1981, OUCH petitioned
The wastes were to be mostly in DEE to suspend the dumping
solid or sludge form, encapsulated permit earlier granted to Sunny
in barrels, and stored between a Farms. Shortly thereafter, DEE
“sandwich" of soil-cement lined suspended all permits held by
«itt' [»m.- wiy w. Stabatrol owned by Waste Mgmt.
With a potential threat of in Pennsylvania for “operational
chemical pollution to their water and design violations."
supplies and farmland, residents That suspension the
of Green Valley and the Lyncott site, with the city of
surrounding area banded into two Binghamton, N.Y., 31 miles away
citizens groups, OUCH, or Op- asking for shutdown after they
ppsing Unnecessary Chemical documented pollution in the
Hazards, and an auxiliary, groundwater in the area of the
MAD, Mothers Against the Dump, city’s water supplies.
Headed by valley resident Steve As the battle continued between
Marsh, El Seven Valleys, and a the citizens groups and the firms
steering committee core of other aiming at using their dumping
neighbors adjacent to the proposed sites, the controversy became an '
hillside dumping site, OUCH began expensive, complicated jumble of
an intensive campaign of public lawsuits.
awareness activities, fund raising
for legal defense, and hydrological
and geological studies.
In their research through
bureaucratic and governmental
channels, OUCH learned that
Stabatrol was involved in several
other dump-site squirmishes OUCH in turn argued that the
across Pennsylvania. They in- token construction done to acquire
t Introducing to the Mid Atlantic Area
The Nitterbouse Upright Bunker Silo
Featuring a single component design
for fast erection and completion. The
sections bolt together and the tongue
and groove creates a sealed wall
surface.
The sections may be dismantled and
re-located, customers may select any
length or width in increments of 5
feet 2 inches.
In addition to silage storage, these
upright units may be used as
retaining walls or manure pits.
iffe * * X
' 'Siiit-’Sifife
MANURE PIT
* * *
* '* >» „
{vum
• iMM j / *
BUNKER SILO STORAGE
r i:>
* ; >i »,r ~
/V A-f
- '~s * r
# Concrete Products Inc. <
ittornnilCP Farm Products Division
■ w Box N chambersburg, Pa. 17201
717-264-6154
In'April of 1981, the federal
Environmental Protection Agency
determined that Sunny Farms
would be granted an “interim
status," based on their claimed
continuous operation at the North
Codorus site.
the interim status permit was
neither continuous or legal,
"moving ground from one side of
the place to the other," claimed
one spokesperson, and filed suit
against the EPA decision.
In early summer, York county
courts upheld a township or
dinance requiring a 500-yard
dumping site setback buffer zone
from the nearest residence. That
decision is being appealed to
Commonwealth court by the site
operators.
Then, just recently, OUCH
petitioned for third party status on
the lawsuit pending between North
Cbdorus Township and the
Liqwacon firm. Liqwaeon had
earlier filed suit - against the
township for rejecting its sub
division plans for their dumpsite.
A granting of third-party status
would assure OUCH represen
tatives of being notified of up- A
coming hearings, and would
permit their testimony. Currently,
members of the the citizens’ group
usually learn of a hearing just
hours before it’s opening. -
OUCH also petitioned for the
revokation of Sunny Farms permit
from DEE, which has lain dormant
for a year. On the basis of their
past operations, at the now closed
Lyncott site in Susquehanna
County, OUCH claims that
Stabatrol, now • Waste
Management, should not be'
allowed to operate in the state of
Pennsylvania at all.
Although the original Stabatrol
firm was ordered to dig out and
clean up the materials at Lyncott,
the new owner, Waste
Management, claims it should not
TONNAGE TABLE FOR 8 FT. SIDEWALLS’
■" 30 40 50 60“
UaWW WIDE WIDE WIDE WIDE
<0 323 432 540 646
# 376 504 630 753
m 431 576 720 862
& 485 548 808 971
. ' JOS 539 720 900 1078
119 '' 593 792 989 1187
J2O 648 864 1080 1296
199 688 936 1170 1376
755 1008 1260 1510
808 | 1080 | 1350 | 1616
•BASED ON LEVEL FILL WITH
45 LBS PER CU FT.
for i
be responsible
before it purch
operations.
OUCH has
tervention stat
between Sunny
concerning the 1
state dumping p
In a letter re
OUCH, the grou
while OER dii
seeking third-);
status, the bu
that OUCH wou
on them in testir
But OUCH ho
CO
Farmers on
populate Greet
to stop the bi
mainly for thei
cn
Here
You
Les
15* J
Wf/Hf/ty/Hiii)
LAI
ofth
OU
Frid.
Our total
NEWS (Incl
FEATURES
& EQL
MARKET..
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