Quarry's neighbors raise concerns over wood grinding operation

New Berlin — A proposed wood grinding operation will have to cut through a number of resident objections before New Berlin allows it to operate on part of Johnson Sand and Gravel quarry, 20685 W. National Ave.

A new company named Waters' Wood Recycling Services wants to grind stumps, branches and scrap wood from construction projects into wood chips. The chips, which are used as a fuel component, would be trucked down National Avenue to the Port of Milwaukee for shipment overseas.

But residents have raised several objections.

They worry about tree diseases, such as the destructive emerald ash borer, being brought into the area from outside. Some also worry that poisons might be released into the air from the grinding of construction lumber treated with preparations, including arsenic and other chemicals.

Company officials said visual inspections at the site would avoid both those concerns. They also said they would work only with contractors that have been certified as "green."

Residents object to operations

Some residents also objected that a wood-grinding operation is not even close to the uses the city allows at quarries under its zoning code.

Trucks with loads exceeding state limits would break down the newly finished National Avenue and would be noisy, others said. The truck traffic would not be in keeping with the upscale city center shopping area the city wants to develop on National Avenue, residents said.

Residents living near the quarry said the grinding noise would be obnoxious, despite company assurances to the contrary.

The Plan Commission will take up the company request when it addresses these and other concerns brought up by the approximately 15 residents speaking at a public hearing have been addressed. The facility would be south of I-43 on quarry property with an address of 6600 Crowbar Road.

Worry over the potential for pests such as the gypsy moth and emerald ash borer being brought in and contamination from chemically-treated wood is most important to some residents.

"With the emerald ash borer, only one has to slip by before we have a problem," quarry neighbor Paul Stieff of West National Avenue said. He also wondered how many other pests might be introduced into New Berlin riding along on branches and stumps.

But Ed Waters, president and founder of Waters' Wood Recycling Services, said wood cannot be transported out of counties where the emerald ash borer has been found. It has not been found in Waukesha County, he said. But if it is, the grinding would be done onsite and pieces would be ground extremely small, Waters said, and the operation would comply with federal agriculture and state Department of Natural Resources rules. The wood would come from a maximum 20-mile radius, he said.

Mark Vincent, a director of the company, added that the site would only accept wood from municipalities and landscapers who have a "green" certification and follow guidelines for safe pest control. And if a tree is taken because of gypsy moth infestation, they are to notify the service, Vincent said.

"You have a lot of faith in these guys," Stieff said.

But it is the potential for poisons such as arsenic getting into the air from chemically treated lumber that worries Mary Hiebl of the 20000 block of National Avenue.

For example, she said, the mud sill of her home was required by the city to have been treated with arsenic. Such treated lumber could find its way to the proposed grinding operation, she said. And it could ride into people's lungs on wood dust kicked up in the grinding, she said.

"And wood dust is a known carcinogen," she said.

To keep pests and treated lumber from coming into the site, a worker will visually inspect each load, Waters said. The treated wood is easily detectable, he said.

But Stieff was doubtful: "I don't see how a visual inspection would work the gypsy moths."

"We don't have a sense of an adequate monitoring system," Hiebl said.

Trucks too heavy for interstate

The 20 runs a day of semi-tractor trailer trucks tipping the scale at 98,000 pounds also raised concerns that National Avenue would be worn down. The trips would be four days a week every other week at maximum. Like other recycling semis, the wood trucks would not be allowed on the interstate system because they are too heavy, Waters said.

Hiebl noted that National was recently redone at a cost of $7.5 million, and she did not want the extra-heavy trucks to wear it down.

"So, there is an infrastructure cost," she said.

The potential truck traffic is not only a concern on National Avenue at the quarry, but all the way east on National, Alderman David Ament who sits on the Plan Commission, said. He also wants to know how the trucking might affect efforts to develop the city center on National Avenue into an upscale area.

Resident Vernon Bentley of Johnson Road said the costs seem to be significant, but the city would not benefit from additional property taxes. The outdoor operation would rent space rather than build a structure that would be taxable, he said.

The city would save some money, Vincent said, from paying less to have its brush chipped rather than dumped in a landfill. Landfills cost about $41 a ton, he estimated, but the business has not yet established its fees, Vincent said.