Couple turns to Turin for water plant
TURIN — After repeatedly being rebuffed on a proposed bulk-water project in Greig, a Pennsylvania couple has submitted plans to build the facility across the river in Turin instead.
However, Greig town officials still hope to cut the project off at its source — located in their town — through beefed-up zoning laws.
"I really feel like he's jumping the gun," said first-year Greig Supervisor Marilyn E. Patterson, one of many vocal opponents of the controversial project.
For the past several years, John T. and Lynn L. Smoke, residents of Bangor, Pa., have been working to develop a facility for collection, bulk storage and shipment of spring water on their property off Sweeney Road in the town of Greig. The proposed operation would collect spring-fed surface water, using no pumps, through four concrete casings with pipes that the Smokes have installed.
The Town Council denied a request to reclassify the property to a "floating zone," which would allow them to develop their proposed facility, until a full environmental assessment was completed.
The Greig town Planning Board also denied a permit to construct a warehouse building and storage silo on the property, suggesting it would be an incompatible use. That decision was upheld in both state Supreme Court and, last month, the Fourth Judicial Department's Appellate Division in Rochester.
According to a special permit request submitted recently with the town of Turin and Lewis County, the Smokes are now proposing to build an 80-by-46-foot facility on a 100-acre site off the north side of Burdicks Crossing Road, a couple of miles west of their spring in Greig. The building, including two storage tanks and loading bays, would be sited 190 feet off the road and accessed via a circular driveway.
Plans are for 24 to 48 trucks per day to travel from the plant up Burdicks Crossing Road to Route 12. Two to four people would work at the proposed facility.
The submitted plans did not identify a water source, showing only an 8-inch pipe entering the rear of the facility. However, the possibility of developing an underground water line from the spring in Greig under the Black River has been discussed previously by Smoke representatives.
The Smokes earlier this year purchased 18.4 acres of land in Greig from Timothy A. Woodward and were granted water-line easements by Mr. Woodward and Beverly A. Heller on land between the spring and the river, according to county land records. Then, in August, they bought the 100-acre parcel in Turin, which includes river frontage, from Linda Mezey.
Lowville attorney Michael F. Young, who handled the land sales for the Smokes, and New Hartford attorney Thomas P. Hughes, who represented the Smokes in their legal actions against Greig, both said they are not involved with the new permit application.
The county Planning Board is slated to review the proposal at 6 p.m. Thursday in the basement of the County Courthouse.
The Turin town Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the special permit request at 7 p.m. Nov. 25 at the Turin Community Building on East Main Street.
Even with a building in Turin, the Smokes should still need Greig's permission to extract water, said Mrs. Patterson, who was invited to attend next week's public hearing.
Partly in reaction to the Smokes' proposal, the Town Council in late August by a 3-2 vote enacted a six-month moratorium on storage facilities and extraction of natural resources, including water. A group of town officials and residents are now working with town Attorney Mark G. Gebo to update town zoning law on those issues, with the water section based heavily on the Great Lakes Compact.
"It's our duty to protect the town first," Mrs. Patterson said. "That's what we're basing our whole law on."
