Many townships are experiencing on onslaught of large truck terminal/warehouse distribution facility (TT) construction. The aftermath of this rapid growth, including: environmental, noise, traffic, and air quality, to name a few, may not be fully realized until it is too late.

In Kidder Township, a proposed TT will soon be seeking conditional approval from the board of supervisors. Members of LOVE Kidder Township hired an engineer to review the builder’s plans. Our hired engineer found an error in the builder’s Post-Construction Stormwater Management design. The builder’s engineer improperly calculated that detention basin #1 (there are two basins with the same design) would experience volume reduction of 75,159 cubic feet per day based on evapotranspiration assumptions (incorrect assumption). If the correct assumptions were applied (pan evaporation), the volume reduction would be approximately 430 cubic feet per day and not 75,159! Flooding may be very severe with such little daily volume reduction. Our engineer stated “Construction details are both lacking and incorrect for the design that the applicant has proposed.”

I wonder how often township’s engineers, boards of supervisors, and PA DEP, approve plans based on the builder’s engineer’s design. It is expensive and time consuming for concerned residents to challenge these TT plans. However, the real expense may not be known for years.

Chuck Cutshall

Kidder Township