Maine City Okays Conditional Use Permit for Auto Shredder

*** Update***

The Planning Board unanimously approved the conditional use permit for Berwick Iron & Metal. The permit imposes 11 conditions that the company must meet before the shredder can be operated. Several conditions include the following: the facility obtaining a solid waste processing license from the state of Maine; the inclusion of signs near the facility instructing truck drivers to no stop to prevent traffic backups; and the inclusion of an entrance modification permit from the Maine Department of Transportation.l

The Berwick, Maine, Planning Board is slated to hold a meeting March 3 to decide whether or not to grant a conditional use permit to Berwick Iron & Metal to operate an auto shredder at its scrap metal site at its facility in the city.

The facility presently operates in an area zoned as rural, commercial and industrial. The company already has the auto shredder located at the site, but needs an updated conditional use permit to operate the equipment.

The company already has received an air emissions permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. A spokeswoman for the Berwick Planning Board says that the March 3 meeting will likely be the last of close to a half dozen meetings that have been held to discuss the proposed auto shredder.

Several of the concerns that were expressed over the project have been addressed, says Susie Scott, Berwick’s planning and assessing coordinator, including noise levels, hours of operation and frontage of the property.

One local news article notes that a consultant hired by Berwick Iron & Metal says that through the implementation of various steps, noise levels will be below local and state mandated thresholds for noise, pollution, traffic and other regulated environmental impacts.

According to Fosters Daily Democrat, several Planning Board members have stated they would like to make their decision after the state Department of Environmental Protection grants Berwick Iron and Metal a solid waste processing license.

The article notes that one board member said that the board could grant a permit to the company with a stipulation the permit is valid once all state permits and licenses are in place.