Borough Council

STROUDSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2021 A special meeting of the Stroudsburg Borough Council convened on Monday, April 12, 2021 at 3:45 P.M. via Zoom.us with the following members present: Council President Anthony Lanfrank, Vice-President of Council Matt Abell, Council member Jim Evanisko, and Council member Boyd Weiss. Also present were: Mayor Tarah Probst, Borough Manager Larry Kopp, and Stroudsburg Brodhead Creek Regional Authority “BCRA” representative Eric Scelza. Council members Erica McCabe, Victoria DeVries and James Smith were absent. Adequate notice of this special meeting was provided by publishing notice in the legal section of The Pocono Record in the issue of April 10, 2021 and by providing notice on the Stroudsburg Borough website www.stroudsburgboro.com and the Stroudsburg Borough Facebook page. David Horton, Manager of “BCRA”, provided further details in connection with his letter dated April 1, 2021 to the three Wastewater Municipalities (Stroudsburg Borough, Stroud Township and Pocono Township). “BCRA” is in the final stage of renewing the Industrial Pretreatment Program “IPP” Permit for Sanofi, which is located in Pocono Township. Sanofi has identified pH as a parameter that it has found challenging to meet on a continuous basis, which caused Sanofi to periodically reduce its discharge to the sewer collection system in order to comply with its existing IPP Permit. Sanofi’s pH limit in the current permit is more restrictive than the pH limit in the Sewage Treatment Agreements of the BCRA Wastewater Treatment Plant. The allowable pH range for discharge is between 6.0 and 9.0 at the BCRA Wastewater Treatment Plant; the pH limits for discharge in the Sanofi facility range from 6.5 to 8.5. There is no scientific basis for the latter, and the differing ranges are creating a problem for BCRA with the administration of the IPP Permit for Sanofi. Sanofi has asked that it be permitted to discharge the pH within the limits that are authorized for all customers of the collection systems that flow in to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The increased flow from the Pocono Township collection system would benefit the remaining wastewater municipalities (Stroud Township and Stroudsburg Borough) by offsetting costs that are presently assessed to their collection systems. Mr. Horton added that this modification is merely an administrative/procedural change that has no adverse environmental impact to the plant. Mr. Abell made a motion to affirm the intent of the BCRA, in accordance with its April 1, 2021 letter to the Wastewater Municipalities, allowing Sanofi to discharge wastewater within a range between 6.0 and 9.0 which is consistent with the Sewer Treatment Agreements. The motion was seconded by Mr. Lanfrank. A discussion ensued. Mayor Probst expressed concern about the proposal and asked that Council be given more time to consider the request. She stated that she will discuss the proposal with members of the Brodhead Watershed Association first. Roll call vote: 2-yes (Lanfrank, Abell); 2-no (Weiss, Evanisko). After more discussion, Mayor Probst indicated that she would be reluctant to vote in favor of the motion to break the tie.Mr. Abell withdrew the motion. This meeting will reconvene, and the matter will be considered again at the April 20th Council meeting.