Residents press board over prior references to ‘Superfund’ status for Catania site; staff say remediation requirements remain

During public comment, resident Eric Bruno told the board he reviewed federal and state records and local microfilm that, he said, show the previously discussed Catania site was remediated in 1985 and was not placed on the EPA National Priorities List. "It's remediated. It's done. It's not a Superfund site," Bruno said while summarizing the historical report he had pulled from archives.

Township staff and board members responded that the terminology used in earlier meetings had been imprecise and that the distinction matters: township engineer Kessler explained the federal Superfund/NPL list covers the most hazardous sites, and that the 1985 study acknowledged the site "is not at the Superfund level" but nevertheless contains contamination the PA DEP oversees through brownfield/cleanup programs. A township representative, identified in the record as Ennis, said the zoning text amendment explicitly requires that any site identified by the Pennsylvania DEP as hazardous "shall comply with the Pennsylvania DEP and EPA cleanup requirements," and that future development would still be subject to land‑development and conditional‑use conditions requiring remediation steps and inspections.

Bruno asked whether the board will pursue a corrective amendment based on what he called "fraudulent information" being presented in April; board members offered to meet with him and staff to review records and follow up outside the meeting. The board did not reverse the earlier April rezoning during this session; staff characterized the matter as one of terminology and confirmed remediation obligations remain in place for future proposals.