It could be several months before the parties involved with an appeal hearing concerning the Hegins and Hubley Joint Act 537 Sewage Facilities Plan know a decision.
Testimony concluded Wednesday during a two-day hearing before presiding Judge Richard P. Mather Sr. at the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, Rachel Carson Office Building, Harrisburg.
Taking the stand Wednesday were Darryl Fritz, a DEP sewage planning supervisor, and James J. Rhoades Jr., project manager with Alfred Benesch & Co., Pottsville, the engineering firm hired by the townships to develop the Act 537 plan.
John R. Dixon, assistant counsel, Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, explained the decision-making process via email to The Republican-Herald. Dixon assists the EHB judge with his cases and with other board matters.
After the hearing transcripts are received and distributed to the parties, which usually takes about three weeks from the hearing, the board will issue a briefing order to the parties which details when each parties’ post-hearing brief is due. After several months of post-hearing briefing and if there are no additional post-hearing motions that the board must address, the board can start drafting the adjudication, Dixon said.
The board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, Title 25, Chapter 1021 of the Pennsylvania Code, he said, do not provide a timeframe for a decision.
“However, the board’s Internal Operating Procedures found on our website provide that adjudications should be issued within 90 days of receipt of the last brief, but this is not a binding rule in the board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure. This timeframe, as well as any other item found in the Internal Operating Procedures, does not create or diminish any substantive or procedural rights.”
The Internal Operating Procedures were adopted by the board for the purposes of helping the board implement its duties, he said.
“While we try to issue our decisions as quickly as possible, the board can still issue adjudications after the 90 day window,” Dixon said. “With that said, I can’t provide an exact timeframe for when the adjudication will be issued, as there are still several months of briefing that must take place, and each adjudication is unique and there are many factors involved in the decision making process.”
The appeal was filed May 14, 2015, by a group of Hegins Township citizens — Roger Wetzel, William Wolfgang, Randy Shadle, Kenneth W. Richter, Kenneth Graham and Harry Mausser — who are the appellants in the case.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the DEP, and Hegins and Hubley townships are listed as the permittees.