Lystek disputes Glen board vote

PHOTOGRAPHER: Photo Provided

The Lystek biomass processing plant in Fairfield, Calif.

GLEN — The town Planning Board has voted to deny the controversial application of a Canadian waste processing company, but the company said the application was previously deemed incomplete and it shouldn’t have been voted on.

Lystek International spokesman Kevin Litwiller said the company continues to review questions raised by town engineering consultants in response to the application to decide what it will do next.

“If we feel it still makes sense for us to resubmit, we will, and if it doesn’t, we won’t,” Litwiller said on Friday.

Lystek, which is based in Ontario, develops plants that process sludge from municipal sewage treatment plants and other biological waste into agricultural fertilizer. It is seeking to build a plant in the Glen Canal View Business Park on Route 5S, just east of the village of Fultonville.

The Planning Board vote came unexpectedly Thursday night — Lystek International’s application was not scheduled for formal discussion — though some residents expected to speak against it, as they have for several months. Lystek was not represented at the meeting.

In a letter to the Planning Board Thursday afternoon, Lystek regional business development manager Jim Belcastro noted that the company’s site plan application was previously deemed incomplete by town officials, based on its engineering consultants’ questions.

“At this time, please be advised that we intend to revise our application with additional supplemental information,” Belcastro wrote. “Therefore, we request that no action be taken on our application at this time.”

Belcastro reinterated that position in a second letter sent to the Planning Board Friday afternoon.

Town officials were initially receptive to the $12 million project that they’ve been aware of since last fall, but a number of residents have spoken out against the plan. They have expressed concerns about increased truck traffic, the possibility of odors, and the potential contents of the sludge, which would come from municipal waste treatment plants within roughly a 75-mile radius.

At a Glen Town Board meeting Monday, an attorney for opponents said a 1998 town law appears to prohibit the secondary treatment of liquid or solid waste in the town, raising new questions about whether Lystek could win approval.

In a statement on Friday, Litwiller said the company’s position is that based on the letter submitted earlier in the day, the Planning Board had no application before it on which to act.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 518-395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.