Representatives of the hazardous waste management firm Environmental Enterprises Inc. have assured officials that its new location in the Township would not be a hazard to residents.Environmental Enterprises has a conditional use hearing scheduled 7 p.m. Monday with the Amity Township Board of Supervisors for approval to establish a trash transfer station at 3 Riga Lane.
Brian J. Hunter, the company’s division manager, told the township Planning Commission on Sept. 10 that it does not handle – nor dispose of – any ‘red bag’ waste.
‘I know when you say hazardous waste people get nervous, but when people have a can of paint, that’s we dispose of,’ said Hunter.
‘We go to various businesses, public schools, college, and hospitals in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware to collect hazardous waste and properly package, label, and bring in smaller trucks and load onto trash trucks,’ said Hunter, adding that most of the waste goes to a recycling site in Ohio, but also to sites in Allentown and Myerstown.
This local division of Environmental Enterprises Inc., has operated its truck-to-truck waste disposal transfer business in Royersford for 20 years. Environmental Enterprises was founded in 1976 by Proctor & Gamble.
Hunter said the company now wants to relocate the division to Amity Township and purchase the 3.38 acre property at 3 Riga Lane, which is zoned Planned Business/Office/Industrial District.
He said Environmental Enterprises will continue to collect only industrial and hazardous waste management such as solvents, oils, antifreeze, ‘low-level’ hospital waste, chemicals from research labs (which are lab-packed), and universal waste (light bulbs and batteries).
At least one tractor-trailer load of waste would leave the site each week.
He said there wouldn’t be any remedial clean-ups, tank removals, waste wouldn’t be stored outside the building, and odors would not emanate from the building or the property.
The property’s currently vacant commercial building would be used to store supplies and universal waste.
Bob Pflugler, the company’s lab pack chemist for 16 years, said some customers are trained (and approved) to package their own chemicals, depending on the level of hazard.
Otherwise, Hunter and Pflugler handle the packaging of other customers’ hazardous waste.
‘We are inspected annually by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the state Environmental Protection Agency, and we have no issues with any regulatory agencies,’ said Hunter.
‘We do open only if something is leaking, to transfer it or over-pack it, if it is not properly packaged,’ said Hunter.
Hunter and Pflugler live in the Daniel Boone School District area and want to be a part of the community.
He said the company would dispose of school district waste, serve as advisors for any drums or waste found within the community, and also sponsor local little league teams.
Township Solicitor Brian F. Boland said the purpose of the conditional use hearing is to allow the use in the Planned Business/Office/Industrial District.
‘The ordinance provides (by-right) for a trash transfer station – the dumping of a container into another container – never mixed with anything else – but this [proposed use] doesn’t match the definition of a trash transfer station,’ said Boland, adding that this is a is a chemical transfer station.
