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."