Turning leaves, grass and similar waste into compost takes many weeks, and Harrisburg is finding it takes at least that long to learn whether it can put a composting facility in adjacent Susquehanna Township.
Likewise, neighbors of the proposed site are enduring their own wait — several dozen sat through an hours-long hearing on Tuesday night, but still didn’t get a chance to officially voice their objections. The zoning hearing that will decide the matter was extended until July 10.
Harrisburg needs the facility for reasons including it’s no longer allowed to burn plant and tree waste from city parks and yards in its incinerator, nor is it allowed to put it in landfills.
After evaluating various city sites including Reservoir Park, the city decided to put the facility on part of a 41-acre site owned by Harrisburg School District in Susquehanna Township. The tract is zoned for conservation, which doesn’t allow composting facilities. Harrisburg is seeking special permission.
On Tuesday night, an engineer working for Harrisburg gave a long description of what the composting facility will look like and what will take place there. He noted three other composing sites are already operating in the immediate area. The school district land, once occupied by a middle school, is north of Arsenal Boulevard and east of Capital Region Water offices and treatment facilities.
Robert Hasemeier, the engineer, said the composting site will occupy five acres, and consist of a storage building and an educational pavilion. The entrance will be on Stanley Avenue, and between 10 and 25 city trucks per day would come to the facility during normal working hours during the peak disposal period between late September and early December. No city residents or non-city employees would be allowed to bring waste to the site.
Leaves and similar materials would be arranged into curing piles, with the piles being regularly turned as part of the composting process. After about eight weeks, the compost would be removed from the site and distributed to the public at other locations.
Hasemeier, who said he’s been involved with many composting facilities around the state, said the process will produce no significant odor. It’s possible grinding or chipping of large tree branches would take place at the facility, although some of that process will also continue to take place at the site where limbs originate, he said. The school district already dumps leaves from district properties at the site.
Hasemeier sat through a long cross examination from township lawyer James Diamond. Diamond seemed intent on raising the possibility the actual use of the site might turn out to be different than described by Hasemeier, and perhaps even undermining Harrisburg’s credibility. For example, he produced weather records found online which seem to show the dates on photo exhibits presented by Harrisburg can’t be accurate. However, it was unclear whether that would mean Harrisburg is misrepresenting the project.
Hasemeier will continue testifying, this time under questioning from a Harrisburg lawyer, when the hearing resumes at 6 p.m. on July 10 at Susquehanna’s township building. It’s possible the zoning hearing board will finally vote at that hearing.
On Tuesday night, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse sat in the front row but didn’t speak during the three-and-a-half hour hearing. He has accused Susquehanna of stretching to find legal reasons to block the facility, and called it a “misguided” effort that is based on hostility toward residents of a different community and bad for the region.
Papenfuse has further said “it shows a lack of leadership by the elected officials in Susquehanna Township to correct the misinformed assumptions of their residents about composting.”
Meanwhile, Edgemont resident Willie Harmon sat through the entire hearing as well. In an interview, he said the school district-owned property, next to own his property, is neglected and he regularly mows and plants flowers there. He said Harrisburg’s tortured history with its trash incinerator makes him distrust the city’s ability to maintain a composting facility.
“They don’t have a track record for being responsible for what they create. So why would I let them, literally, put that in my back yard?,” he said.
At one point on Tuesday night there about 40 people in the audience, with many waiting to object to the composting facility.
If Harrisburg wins permission from Susquehanna, it would also have to obtain a permit for a composting facility from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Harrisburg has said the composing site would hold about 9,000 cubic yards of leaves and yard waste, including the composting piles, at any given time. In 2016, the city said, it generated 544 tons of leaves, equaling about 5,000 cubic yards.