Sussex officials extend Mountaire comment time
Residents will have a few more days to comment on responses from state environmental officials on a pending conditional-use application filed by Mountaire Farms of Delaware to expand acreage for its wastewater spray-irrigation system.
The poultry company wants to add 352 acres along Mount Joy Road and Townsend Road to its existing 920 acres on 13 farm fields near its Route 24 processing plant near Millsboro.
Following a public hearing, Sussex County Council left the public record open to pose questions to state transportation and environmental officials. The deadline for public comments on the responses was Dec. 16.
A section of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control responses to questions about sludge permitting was not included in a packet of information presented to the public. At its Dec. 17 meeting, council voted 5-0 to extend the public comment period. The public can now respond in writing on the agency's comments until 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 26.
DNREC's responses are published on the county website at www.sussexcountyde.gov and available at the planning and zoning office in the administration building, 2 The Circle, Georgetown, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. County offices will be closed Monday, Dec. 23, through Wednesday, Dec. 25.
County attorney J. Everett Moore cautioned council to read the public comments carefully. “We are getting many letters and emails much broader than comments on agency comments. Do not use that information in your decision making,” he said at council's Dec. 17 meeting.
