Water extraction present, proposed and future will be on the agenda when West Penn Township Supervisors meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

For several months, many residents have attended meetings to voice their opposition to a proposed water extraction venture at the intersection of Fort Franklin and Blue Mountain roads in the township, managed by developer Jay Land.Land currently manages a water extraction business on Kepner's Road. Land has also attended meetings, and vowed to work with neighbors."I'm going to continue to work with neighbors whose homes are along the truck route," Land said. "I want to continue to talk with people and see what they ask me to do."Last month, supervisors approved an engineering study to determine the present condition of township roads, which could be used for heavy truck traffic. Pending the results of that study, the township may post the roads, which means that companies which operate heavy trucks on the roads would have to post a bond to cover future road repair and maintenance.Also last month, township solicitor Gretchen Stearns presented a draft of a proposed ordinance to regulate future water extraction enterprises in West Penn. The draft is nearly identical to one adopted by Eastern Schuylkill Regional Planning, but differs in two key areas: the amount of land required for a water extraction operation and the zoning districts where water extraction would be possible.In the ESRP ordinance, the land size requirement is 100 acres, and water extraction is only permitted in agricultural-zoned areas. In the draft ordinance prepared by Stearns, water extraction could be allowed in all zoning districts, and the land requirement would be 30 acres.Bob Ritsick of Rush Township, a member of the ESRP board, explained the reasons the board included those specifics in the ordinance regarding water extraction."We looked at a DEP handbook that explained the recharge rate for rain," Ritsick said. "According to my notes, in the handbook it stated that 1 inch of rain is 25,000 gallons of recharge per acre of open land.""That's why we chose ag (agricultural), because you need open land," he said. "When we developed the ordinance, we wanted to comply with what the state recommends you can make it more stringent but you can't lessen what the state recommends."Ritsick had to refer to the ESRP notes to remember the math. He said Pennsylvania gets an average of 40 inches of rain per year, which is 1 million per acre. If a company is extracting 100,000 gallons of water per day for 300 days, that is 30 million gallons."This sounds good for 30 acres, but that means no future expansion anywhere in the aquifer and never have a drought," Ritsick said. "That is highly unlikely, so 100 acres allows for buildings, foliage, a stream and expansion in other areas, as well as irrigation during droughts."Colleen Connolly, community relations coordinator for DEP's Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre, said that DEP doesn't specify a required acreage for water extraction. However, each application is studied to determine whether or not the acreage will be enough for what's proposed."The applicant proposes an acreage in the water extraction permit," Connolly said. "DEP reviews the information to see if acreage is sufficient for that operation."Ted Luhowy, who lives on Fort Franklin Road, sent the supervisors a letter outlining several issues he has with current and proposed water extraction ventures. Last month, he objected to the township spending money for the engineering study of the roads. Luhowy said that the expense should be on the developer."I contend that there is no reason that any costs associated with any private, for-profit business should be paid for by West Penn Township taxpayers," Luhowy wrote. "Road damage caused by tractor-trailers, overweight or otherwise, using weight-restricted rural back roads, should not be the responsibility of taxpayers and the repair costs should be paid in full by the commercial business creating the damage."One of several concerns West Penn Township residents have is ascertaining that future applications for commercial water harvesting will have conditions and restrictions set in place," Luhowy's letter continued. "Those conditions and restrictions should be designed to protect our natural resources and the manner in which our tax dollars are being spent."