HOWELL – Representatives of a company that is proposing to operate an asphalt manufacturing facility are expected to continue presenting testimony before the Howell Zoning Board of Adjustment on Aug. 27.
L&L Paving, 89 Yellowbrook Road, Howell, is proposing to remove an existing concrete manufacturing facility and to develop a bituminous (asphalt) concrete manufacturing facility at its property in a Special Economic Development (SED) zone.
L&L Paving is seeking a use variance to develop the property as an asphalt manufacturing facility. The firm plans to remove a portion of the existing concrete manufacturing facility, rehabilitate an existing storage building, construct a quality control building and weigh station, install an office trailer, and remove and replace approximately 13 acres of impervious coverage with landscaping.
During a July 9 zoning board meeting, Catherine Sutton-Choate, the director of environmental compliance for Astec Inc., a producer of warm mix and hot mix asphalt equipment technology, testified on behalf of the applicant.
Sutton-Choate offered a step-by-step description of what the asphalt manufacturing process would consist of at the proposed facility. She said the facility would include air pollution control equipment, recycle bins and storage silos for the asphalt.
The board’s chairman, Wendell Nanson, asked if the mixing process will be computer controlled and Sutton-Choate said it would be.
“You cannot start certain pieces of equipment without other pieces of equipment also running,” she said, adding that temperature sensors would monitor operations. “If at any point excess temperatures are registered, (that) shuts down the process automatically via the control system to prevent any sort of catastrophic problems (i.e., a potential fire inside the equipment). Not outside the equipment, which is self-contained, but we also do not want fire inside our equipment.”
Sutton-Choate said New Jersey officials wanted to implement emissions requirements similar to those in California, where Astec has a lot of equipment.
“Astec stepped up to the plate and said we will honor those emissions requirements. We were the only manufacturer that would do so and we have equipment that would meet the original proposed standards for New Jersey.
“However, other manufacturers balked at that and New Jersey backed down, so the environmental regulations that are in place right now are not as stringent as originally proposed, but the equipment proposed for L&L Paving is capable of much lower emissions rates than New Jersey is ever going to require and it will operate at that lower level at all times,” Sutton-Choate said. “This is better than some of the other equipment that is already in New Jersey.”
