Concerns voiced for sewage plant

DINGMAN — An overflow crowd met supervisors Tuesday wanting to find out about the proposed Gateway Community sewage treatment facility. Developer Dino Bradlee has submitted a preliminary sewage module plan which is expected to discharge 300,000 gallons of treated waste water into Dwarfskill Creek. The proposed Gateway Community is situated on state Route 739 where it intersects with Log Tavern Road. The Gateway project is on a 273-acre tract of land surrounded by 5,000 acres of Delaware State Forest. Some 770 low to middle income residential units are planned, consisting of town homes, village apartments, and a town center with commercial, retail, and personal as well as institutional service facilities. The notice of the first public hearing back in August went unnoticed among pages of tax sales in the newspaper. However recent publicity about the sewage issues for the Dwarfskill created a tide of public concern and fears of irreversible damage to Dwarfskill Creek, Raymondskill Creek, and downstream Crescent Lake and surrounding wet lands. Crescent Lake is fed by Dwarfskill Creek, flowing into it at a winter rate of approximately 32,000 gallons per day. At the far end of the lake there is a spillway which allows the water to exit the lake and flow into Raymondskill Creek a short distance downstream. Crescent Lake is the home of 70 private residences that use the lake for swimming and fishing. Pat Stabb, president of Crescent Lake Homeowners Association said, “Add 300,000 gallons of treated sewage water per day to Crescent Lake and it will soon be a lake filled with processed sewage water. Our property values will plummet and no one will ever be able to sell their homes. We’re very concerned.” Dingman Township resident Francis Ruggerio was first on the agenda under “Old Business.” He asked Mincer to elaborate on just what was taking place with the proposed Gateway Community. “The original sewage module (plan) submitted by the applicant was sent back because it lacked much of what is needed to be a complete plan,” Supervisor’s Chair Tom Mincer told a silent and attentive audience. He went on to say, “At this moment in time the sewage module is not even in front of the supervisors because it is not ready and the applicant was granted a 60-day extension as would be granted to any developer or homeowner to correct deficiencies in their plan. This is done so that the applicant does not have to pay additional fees to the township to resubmit a new plan.” An integral part of the sewage planning module is the requirement that the developer provide options other than discharge into stream water. If he wants to discharge into the stream he also has to state why. This was not done, Mincer said. “There are many rumors and allegations floating around that are untrue so I would like to clear some of this up. It is simply untrue that we have approved the sewage plan. As of now the developer has not come back with a revised module and may never come back,” Mincer said. Bradlee has asked the township what he needs to do to get his planning module into compliance. If he doesn’t provide other options than disposal into the Dwarfskill of the treated sewage, then the plan will go back to him again, Mincer said. “Even if we were to approve the plan the DEP has to hold public hearings, and we told the applicant that one of the conditions for township approval will be that DEP hearings must be held in the township rather than at some distant location like Scranton,” he added. “I was told there is a plan ready for resubmission and that concerns us. You say it is still not ready. We expect our leadership to show they are concerned about the residents of township,” said resident Sean Strub, who owns 500 acres of land along Dwarfskill Creek. “I have spoken to the developer myself and he told me that this is what our area is for and that is what will sell,” said resident Francis Ruggerio. He referred to Milford Highlands, Bradlee’s more expensive home development in Milford. “They haven’t sold any of the high priced units in the last year,” he said. Asked if a sewage plant to discharge into one of the township streams was possible, Mincer replied, ‘I can’t give you an answer about what might happen in the future.’ Mincer was pleased at the turnout. “We wish more people would come to our meetings to learn what is going on,” he said.