Drilling Waste Water Treatment Plant Proposed for Owego

Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Oct 28):
Drilling processor targets Owego site

From the Oct. 28th Press & Sun-Bulletin:

A plant to treat waste from the Marcellus Shale is on the drawing board in the Town of Owego.

Patriot Water Treatment pitched its plans to convert a former car dealership at 936 Taylor Road to a waste water treatment plant for Marcellus drillers at a planning board meeting Tuesday night. The proposal calls for installing holding and processing tanks in the existing building to treat round-the-clock shipments of drilling waste water, according to information from the planning board.

And this:

The plan, recommended for approval by the Tioga County Planning Board, estimates traffic from industrial waste haulers would average 96 trucks per day (four per hour), seven days a week. Haulers would use Day Hollow Road, Bodle Hill Road and Taylor Road to access the facility.

Of course, anything to do with drilling is subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) opposed by the Press & Sun-Bulletin. The thought they want to leave you with is trucks lumbering down your street in the middle of the night hauling nasty chemicals ready to spill out on your front lawn.

I know I would not want trucks round the clock going by my house–but–actually, they do! I live not a quarter mile from State Route 17 (the future I-86) and the traffic noise, especially from large trucks downshifting on a nearby hill, is 24×7. Traffic, especially if it’s mostly in the daytime, is a fact of commerce.

Let’s let the good citizens of the Owego Town Board perform their due dilligence and render a decision that is fair to all the citizens of Tioga County. If the proposed location is too close to homes and traffic will be an ongoing disturbance, they should deny the permit. If not, grant it and reap the benfits of more jobs and more tax revenue from a new business in the area.

I have confidence in our locally elected representatives to make the correct decision in this case.