AVOCA, Pa. — Every single person at this meeting at the Queen of the Apostles Parish Hall in Avoca came with one goal in mind.
"Bottom line is that nobody wants this. And as you can tell by the crowd's response, you're in for a hell of a fight if you think you're going to win this," said Rich Hansen, resident.
The proposed development is to build what's known as a 'transfer station,' a place where discarded construction materials and debris can be dumped until it's transferred to a landfill or reused in other projects.
Big Rocks, LLC., the company that owns the land, says the station will be about 800 feet away from a neighborhood known as Quail Hill.
"It shouldn't even be there; it should be out in the country away from populated areas," said Lawrence Rabender, resident.
One after the other, everyone had different reasons for their concerns, but everyone shared a similar sentiment: they didn't trust it would be safe.
"This town, all of our residents have no recourse against this company if something goes sideways like it did with Kerr-McGee," said Bruce Bodedeker, resident.
Kerr-McGee was a wood treatment plant formerly in Avoca that has been linked to releasing cancer-causing chemicals across the area.
It resulted in a multi-billion dollar settlement. Residents of Avoca say they still live with the effects of Kerr-McGee.
"Avoca lived through it, those residents in Avoca lived through it, it's in everybody's mind as you hear tonight when everybody was speaking," said Pina Hansen, Quail Run.
This is why Frank Hoegan, a lawyer representing Big Rocks LLC, believes there's so much opposition despite claiming the project is safe, "I think the distrust was born out of things that happened many years ago. I think the state agencies and the local agencies which heavily regulate."
The zoning board committee will decide if the transfer station project will move forward; when that will happen is still unclear.