OMYA Submits Truck Data

By Bruce Edwards - 9-22-97

OMYA, Inc. has reluctantly provided the District

1 Environmental Commission with the number of trucks

that enter and leave its Florence calcium carbonate

plant.

OMYA said it was supplying what it regards as

trade secret information with "deep regret" and "under

protest."

Based on information contained in a letter to

District 1 Coordinator William T. Burke, OMYA's plant

in Florence generated more than 5,000 round-trips

during the month of July.

The company's Act 250 permit application for a

$6.8 million plant expansion was put on hold last

month until the company submitted an affidavit on

truck traffic.

Burke asked OMYA to furnish him with the exact

number of marble ore trucks that arrived at the plant

from each of its four quarries during the month of

July. He also requested the number of trucks leaving

the plant with finished product and the number of

turning movements that take place at the intersection

of the Florence Truck Route and Route 7.

OMYA said it would provide the information to the

commission on the condition that it remain

confidential. But Burke rejected the company's trade

secret argument and cited the public's right to know.

He said Friday he would review the information

before determining whether the company had satisfied

his request.

During the month of July, the Florence plant

received a total of 3,437 truck loads of marble ore

from the company's four quarries. Each quarry

supplied the following truck loads: Middlebury,

2,200; Hogback in Florence, 559; Smoke Rise in

Brandon, 442; and South Wallingford, 236.

OMYA also said in its letter that 1,689 trucks

left the plant during the month with finished product.

The company said previously that one-third of its

finished product is shipped by truck. The remainder

is shipped by rail.

Based on the number of marble ore deliveries and

shipments of finished product, that would bring the

total to 5,126 round-trips during July, or 10,252

trucks coming and going from the plant.

In addition, the company estimated that other

commercial traffic such as Federal Express and UPS

deliveries generate another 26 round-trips a day.

On a daily basis, the company estimated that the

plant generated between 325 and 357 round-trips -

truck traffic that turns on or off Route 7 at the

Florence Truck Route.

The company also told Burke that 90 percent of

trucks that leave the plant with finished product turn

south on Route 7 while 10 percent turn north.

Burke's request was prompted by increased public

concern over truck traffic along Route 7, a busy

north-south corridor.

In a separate Act 250 application, the company is

seeking to expand its Middlebury quarry and double the

number of round-trips from 85 to 170 a day between the

quarry and its Florence plant to the south.

In a letter received by Burke on Friday, OMYA

attorney Edward V. Schwiebert continued to argue that

the information sought by Burke was a trade secret and

could be used by a competitor to the company's

disadvantage.

But Schwiebert went onto say that "... of greater

importance to OMYA, Inc. (and to the economy of the

state and region) than of issue of whether truck

traffic constitutes trade secret information, is OMYA,

Inc.'s commitment to serve its customers and to

provide them with high quality product in a timely

fashion."