Treatment plant plan is shelved

MATT HUGHES

mhughes@timesleader.com

HANOVER TWP. – Trucks hauling water for gas drillers will not rumble up and down the Sans Souci Parkway any time soon.

The only company considering building a plant at the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority to treat wastewater produced by natural gas drilling withdrew its proposal Friday.

The company, New Hampshire-based Cate Street Capital, said citizen opposition to the plant was the main factor in its decision.

“Our engineering study has determined that our proprietary technology is capable of cleaning the water to appropriate standards at a price which is in line with current costs,” Vice President Richard Cyr said in a statement. “We exist to bring environmentally sensitive and sustainable businesses to life, and this project would do that.

“However, we have listened to the community and heard its concerns. We respect our neighbors in Hanover Township, and have decided to pass on this opportunity at this time.”

Cyr could not be reached for additional comment Friday.

Citizens win the day

Cate Street and sub-company Red Desert responded to a request for proposals from the WVSA to build and operate the facility, and the company and the WVSA board have been in a due diligence period since March 16, studying how they might work together to build the plant. The board has paid a consultant to study the feasibility of building the plant for two years.

While in the due diligence period, increasingly large and vocal crowds of area citizens opposing the plan turned out to monthly meetings of the sanitary authority board. They were concerned with the number of water trucks the plan might bring to the plant, the possibility of spills and other issues that could harm quality of life in the area around the plant.

“This goes to show what a group of people can do when they want to change the way things are run,” said Scott Cannon, of Plymouth, a member of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition who attended multiple WVSA meetings.

Cannon added that he expected the company would pull out eventually.

“This kind of publicity isn’t good for an out-of-town business to come into,” Cannon said. “I think our work was very effective in getting them to take a good hard look at it.”

LeeAnn Wallace, president of the recently formed Hanover Area Citizens Coalition, said she was happy to hear of Cate Street’s plans, but called on the sanitary authority to recoup the roughly $130,000 in fees the authority has paid to its consultant, PA Northeast Aqua Resources.

She believes the consultant had a conflict of interest because it stood to profit if the plant was built.

Several state and local officials, including the Hanover Township Commissioners and state Reps. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, and Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Township, also expressed opposition to the plan.

Authority also calls it quits

John Minora of PA Northeast Aqua Resources called the decision to scratch the plant “mutual.”

“I also think that the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Board in conjunction with them felt the same way and came to the same conclusion,” Minora said, adding, “We try to listen to all the ratepayers.”

The WVSA and its board were taken by surprise by the announcement Friday, but board Chairman James Hankey said he met with members of the sanitary authority and its board Wednesday and a majority of board members, himself included, had already made up their minds against the plan and would vote it down at the next board meeting.

The sanitary authority, in a media update it said was drafted after that meeting and that it planned to release Monday, said “it is expected that a majority of board members will vote to not accept the current proposal.”

Hankey said the board saw too much uncertainty both in the amount of revenue the plant might produce and state and federal regulations governing the gas industry to go forward with the plan.

Hankey said he “had no problem with the system that Cate Street was trying to propose,” but added, “We just didn’t think that the revenue was going to be there. Nothing was guaranteed. They had to build it; people had to bring water here… we were uncertain that those things would happen.”

The authority was looking for a way to make more than $15 million in capital improvements its plant needs in the next five years without raising rates. Hankey said the board will continue to explore alternative ways to raise revenue, but said he doesn’t think it will seek additional proposals to build a wastewater plant at this time.

“If somebody comes in here six months from now, a year from now, and knocks on our door and has a plan, we’ll look at it, but we’ll know a lot more by that point,” Hankey said. “We’re not looking for anyone; we’re not retaining anyone, but we’ll certainly look at it if somebody comes in.”

Hankey said that while all points made by opponents of the plan didn’t make sense to him, “the people from Hanover, there were some people there who were scared… and I had a hard time finding a good answer for them. They are living in a town with a sewage treatment plant.”

Final thoughts on controversy

Minora framed the revelation as a missed opportunity.

“I think it was a worthwhile project. The citizens of the Wyoming Valley could have benefited to the tune of four to five million dollars in slowed rate increases,” Minora said. “At the end of the day, there are hundreds of thousands of gallons of water that need to be treated, and it’s going to be treated. Someone else will profit from it.”

Minora added that the turn of events should answer critics who questioned if the plan was already a done-deal.

“When we said there was no deal, there wasn’t, and there was no recommendation being made,” Minora said.

If the Wyoming Valley missed an opportunity, Hanover Township gained an active citizens group.

Group president Wallace said she thinks her coalition will stick around.

“I think the Hanover Area Citizens Coalition is going to stay involved and hopefully work to make some other improvements in the community,” she said.