A plan for a pest control building provoked some sharp questions from the Saugerties Planning Board regarding what potentially hazardous materials may be stored there.
The applicant, Craig Thomas of CT Pest Control, said the materials would be used in the operation of his business and would not be stored in wholesale quantities.
Thomas is negotiating with Central Hudson to purchase the 2,300 square-foot building at 1127 Kings Highway. That part of town is zoned industrial, and Thomas said there are already pest control businesses located in other parts of town with less suitable zoning.
Thomas’ business has been a success and he’s outgrowing his old building in Hyde Park. The Saugerties building would be used to store materials for the company’s home improvement division, which makes modifications to homes to prevent reinfestation.
According to a Termite Survey research article, Thomas assured planners that the amount of chemicals being stored in the building would be small. He showed them the most common container size: less than a gallon. His largest containers would contain about two and a half gallons. “Those big drums are not used today,” he said.
Board member Dan Weeks said the question the board must consider is “how much [total] material you keep on site.”
However, board member Paul Andreassen said that “big box stores would have 10 times as much (pesticides) as he would be storing,” adding that it would be in the best interest of the town to encourage new businesses to locate on Kings Highway. “We need to fill these buildings (industrial buildings on Kings Highway). They have been vacant for a long time.”
In a letter to the board, George Redder, an attorney for the town, states that Craig Thomas’s proposal seems to be allowable under the town’s zoning law, provided chemicals are stored only for use in the pest control operation and not in wholesale lots. Redder said the project should get site plan review, though, referring to a more rigorous level of scrutiny.
The board scheduled a public hearing for its next meeting on Aug. 16. Thomas will have to provide a site plan for the facility at that time.pe
If allowed to use the building on Old Kings Highway, doesn’t the building have to be labeled with HAZMAT placards that Identify what is stored in the building? Are the materials to be stored in water proof containers? What happens if the material gets wet….chemical reaction?…poisonous gas discharged? Fire dept personnel should be provided with the answers to these questions. If they ever have to respond to an Emergency call at that location they need to know what to expect. If ‘plastic bottles’ of ‘poison’ have been exposed to flame, and the material spills out, what happens if firefighters spray water onto it? What happens if the ‘material’ gets wet and soaks into the ground…effect on well water?….kill the soil from growing grass? Danger to humans who work in the area?
My question is why would Mr. Thomas be wanting to store pesticides so far from his office in Hyde Park? That in itself should raise some red flags.
The New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation has guidelines for proper pesticide storage. It is recommended that some type of containment system be in place to capture and spills.
The local fire dept. should have a list of all the pesticides stored at the location along with the Material Safety Data Sheets which lists the proper fire fighting procedures.
Should there be a fire what happens to the water and product that runs off from the sight, it works into the surrounding soil/environment and eventually into the water table.
If Aerosal Cans were to be stored inside the building then you would have tiny bombs going off once the temperature reached a certain level.
A proper sprinkler system should be in place to eliminate this dangerous potential.