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Several area residents Monday expressed concerns at a meeting of the Blair Township Planning Commission that an egg farm with 25,000 chickens proposed for wooded ground near the top of the Route 36 hill south of Hollidaysburg -- above Penn Farms and Holliday Hills -- could cause problems with odor, water use, devaluation of residential properties and highway hazards.
A consultant for Martinsburg-area farm developer Roman Musser reassured attendees, pointing out that Musser has volunteered to submit an odor control plan the state would regulate and a manure handling plan that the Blair County Conservation District would regulate; that water use on the property would be the equivalent of just five houses; that stormwater detention plans are robust; and that a wide-mouth driveway, coupled with PennDOT rules and minimal truck traffic for the farm, will not cause a hazard on Route 36.
The commission tabled its decision on whether to recommend that the township supervisors approve Musser's land development plan, which was presented by consultant Bert Nye of Nye Consulting Services of Lancaster County, after which chairwoman Dodie Amigh promised that the commission will continue to research the issues, even as she urged the residents to do the same.
While the township can work with Nye and Musser to ameliorate potential problems, there isn't anything the township can do to prohibit the development beyond imposing reasonable restrictions and ensuring that they're followed, according to Amigh and Nye.
"We don't have a strong leg to stand on to say 'no,'" Amigh said.
The township's lack of zoning and the state's Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment (ACRE) Act further limit township authority, according to Amigh and Nye.
Musser is proposing to create the egg farm on 153 acres, with a single 47-by-512-foot poultry barn that would probably hold 20,000 chickens -- down from the 25,000 in his application, according to Nye.
The barn would have a concrete floor and would be divided into quadrants, with nesting boxes in the center and a conveyor belt to bring food and another conveyor belt to take manure away, Nye said.
There would be an egg room at one end of the barn and enclosed manure storage at the other end, Nye said.
Keeping the manure indoors and thus dry decreases odor, he said.
The manure is removed from the farm periodically by truck and taken for depositing on fields elsewhere, according to Nye.
The operation is relatively small -- 80,000 chickens is approximately the average size of an egg farm, according to Nye.
The Musser operation will be small enough that an odor management plan and a manure management plan would not be required by the state, but Musser will submit those plans anyway to protect himself and to provide the community a recourse to authorities if there are problems, according to Nye.
The barn is kept clean mainly with compressed air and is not routinely "flushed" with water, Nye said, to help reassure residents that they needn't worry about runoff.
Odor shouldn't be a problem, according to Nye.
He lives 500 feet from the exhaust fan of a chicken barn and has no problems, except a bit of odor when there's a temperature inversion, he said.
One practice that keeps the smell down at a chicken farm is maintenance of a clean exhaust fan -- a practice he implied Musser would follow.
The nearest house to Musser's proposed barn is 1,700 feet away, Nye indicated.
The stormwater facilities on Musser's farm will be like detention facilities on modern farms, which drain runoff into crop fields under control, he said.
Farmers risk losing their crops if water enters those fields out of control, he said.
Hollidaysburg resident Regis Nale brought up stormwater concerns for the Gaysport section of the borough and asked the township "to adhere to the strictest interpretation of the law" on stormwater matters in connection with the Musser proposal.
"We hear you," Amigh said. "Water is equally a concern for Blair Township."
A house will be built on the Musser property, and Musser and his family will be living there, Nye said.
The family expects to earn only about $15,000 to $20,000 a year on the operation, according to Nye.
"Most of us wouldn't do it," Nye said.
The modest income means that in Musser's case, there will be no $200,000 community contributions of the type that some developers who are unwelcome might make to ease concerns, Nye said.
Asked by resident Don Clippinger about the density of the chickens -- less than one square foot per chicken, if Musser keeps 25,000 -- Nye said that density is driven by market demand from across the country.
"It's (also) driven by contract," Nye said. "I don't mess with anyone's contract."
Development of a farm on the property might not be the worst outcome for local residents, suggested Paul Amigh, Dodie's husband and chairman of the township supervisors, who was in the audience.
The ground near the top of the hill on Route 36 could have become a housing development, which likely would have meant that the Hollidaysburg Area School District would have had to construct a new school, and the township would have had to hire a new police officer, resulting in higher taxes, Paul Amigh said.
The tract, which is on the right of the highway for southbound motorists, could also have become a data center, Paul Amigh said, alluding to the community opposition that has become common for data center proposals.
"Thank you for being open-minded, with your well-thought-out questions," Dodie Amigh told the attendees.
"And thank you for not being so offended (by the criticisms) and for being kind and patient," she told Nye.
"I appreciate it," Nye said. "I'm not trying to hide behind anything."
The chicken farm proposal is expected to be one of the subjects discussed at the next supervisors meeting, 6 p.m. Nov. 10.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.