Neighbors continue to question effect on area water supply

Citizens in East Hopewell Township will have to wait to find out whether they’ll have hogs for neighbors, as supervisors postponed a decision about a proposed farm along Round Hill Church Road until its November meeting.

Farmer John Marsteller Jr. wants to build a 2,200-head hog farm on the site; residents have voiced concerns over lower property values, well depletion and odor because of the farm.

The audience at last night’s supervisors meeting grilled hydrogeologist Scott Summers about his water supply report. His report determined the proposed farm will have adequate water based on the property’s drainage basin, stream flow and the aquifer.

Summer admitted drilling a well is the best way to determine whether there is adequate water, but it isn’t required for the purpose of the report, which also was conducted off-site.

“We’ve got more than six times the water (needed) for this use,” said Paula Leicht, Marsteller’s lawyer.

Leicht said that Marsteller has met all of the requirements and should be approved. Chairman Richard Seitz Jr. finally stopped the audience’s questions to move on to other business.

“There will be no decision made tonight,” Seitz said. “We’re not going to be here till midnight.”

The board will decide on Marsteller’s application at its Nov. 3 meeting.

Last month, Marsteller revised the number from 3,300 hogs last month, which would no longer make the farm a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), the official label given to large facilities critics call “factory farms.”

That means it no longer is subject to the township’s CAFO ordinance and will not need a zoning special exception or a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.