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On the rainy, dreary night of Wednesday, October 22, 2025, the Freedom Township Hall was packed. It was standing-room only by the start of the meeting, with residents eager to learn more about the potential for Freedom Township to be the location of a methane agrodigester/biodigester. The two terms seemed to be used interchangeably during the presentations to describe a process of using organic waste, like food scraps and animal waste, to convert them into useable fuel known as biogas (methane) and a nutrient-rich digestate that can be used as fertilizer. As the Mirror has previously published, while it sounds like a win-win for sustainable-energy production and waste reduction, there are many concerns residents have expressed about the actual process and what it means for the communities where these plants are located.
A major concern presenters and residents expressed is the concentration of industrial plants and hazardous materials already located in Freedom Township, and adding to that risk with yet another source of potential danger. Attendees expressed concerns about response times to any incident that might occur like a fire, explosion, or leaks. One presenter showed a slide that the quickest possible emergency response is 10 minutes, from the Manchester Fire Department. He stated that 10 minutes is optimistic because that time does not include how long it takes for the firefighters to get to the fire station because it is only the time it takes for them to travel from the fire station to Freedom Township. Further questions were raised by the audience about HAZMAT-specific capabilities and whether the nearest responding fire stations are trained and equipped to respond to those specific scenarios.
There was also concern expressed about the environmental effects of these digester and co-digester operations to the land, air, and water around the facilities. A presenter from Fremont Township joined in via Zoom to explain what her and her community’s experience was like when a similar plant opened in the Fremont area. She detailed the impact of the odors produced by the plant specifically but also mentioned contaminants like PFAS and microplastics that are distributed in the digestate biproduct from the plant. This digestate is sold as a fertilizer and spread on farm fields. Other information presented at the meeting explained that this digestate contains heavy metals, PFAS, and microplastics in addition to the advertised nitrates and phosphates that are attractive to farmers for higher yield crops…