Reading Eagle
The Berks County commissioners said they will ask the state Department of Environmental Protection to conduct
a public hearing on a wastewater treatment plant proposed by Cabot Supermetals Corp.
Cabot, on County Line Road in Colebrookdale Township on the Berks-Montgomery county line, wants to build the plant to remove
pollution in wastewater it dumps into Swamp Creek.
Gavin L. Biebuyck of Liberty Environmental Inc. of Reading, a consultant hired by the commissioners to review the project,
said the wastewater plan Cabot submitted to the DEP would remove many of the pollutants from byproducts of production.
He said, however, that Cabot has done nothing to prevent toxins
from escaping into the air around the plant during the wastewater treatment process.
Biebuyck said an oxidizer, which would capture and burn off fluoride, copper and another toxin, methyl isobutyl ketone,
and prevent them from polluting the air around the plant would cost Cabot about $1 million.
Cabot has received $7.25 million in grants and loans from the state for upgrades to its wastewater plant.
The firm makes products used to manufacture semiconductors and other electronics components.
Cabot spokesman Tim Napp was unavailable Thursday.
At the workshop meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Mark C. Scott said that since most of the air and water pollution flows east
he plans to ask the Montgomery County commissioners to help with the $9,500 bill for Biebuyck's service.
Commissioner Judith L. Schwank, chairwoman, said Berks has a number of reasons to be actively involved in the Cabot wastewater
plan.
“First, Cabot is an important employer in the county,” Schwank said.
If the county hadn't looked at the plans, she said, the commissioners wouldn't have known whether the proposed plant would
be just an ordinary sewer treatment plant or one intended to treat pollutants, she said.
And, Schwank said, reducing pollution by Cabot is important because DEP tallies all air pollution produced in the county.
“If we don't monitor pollutants, new manufacturers can't locate here if we've reached our air pollution limits,”
Schwank said.
In a related matter, Scott said the commissioners are going to start watching more closely the bills they get from a their
lawyers.
Scott took issue with a bill submitted by Susan P. LeGros of the Reading-based law firm Stevens & Lee.
In a letter to the commissioners, LeGros wrote that her original estimate to review the Cabot wastewater project was $3,000
but that because of the complexity of the case, it will cost $13,000.
LeGros also asked for an additional $5,000 to prepare comments on the Cabot wastewater plant application. LeGros was unavailable
Thursday.
“I realize this isn't a great deal of money in the grand scheme but this is another case where someone gives us an
estimate and then comes back with a higher cost,” Scott said. “And it wasn't off by a little bit. It's a 333 percent
increase.”
“It's bad timing and probably bad manners to come back to us with this, especially when we're already paying $9,500
to the engineers,” Scott said.
“I think we need to monitor Stevens & Lee a little more closely,” Scott said.
Contact reporter Dan Kelly at 610-371-5040 or dkelly@readingeagle.com.
