On July 28, 2025, the Caernarvon Township Board of Supervisors amended their zoning ordinances allowing  regional anaerobic digesters as permitted conditional uses in the effective Agricultural Preservation District pursuant to specified standards. They also amended their previous ordinance for gas compression stations to allow gas compression stations as a permitted conditions use in their 1-2 General Industrial District pursuant to specified standards.

 

These amended ordinances 333 and 332, respectively add significant safeguard language to their previous zoning ordinances.  The specific language of these amended ordinances can be found at the following link: https://www.caernarvon.org/government/zoning_planning_ordinances.php

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Model Zoning Ordinance for Food Waste Co-Digesters

Caernarvon Township, PA

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Below is specific language used in the zoning ordinances for Caernarvon Township. The original document can be found HERE.  Look for the issue of concern and following it, there will be a model language addressing that concern.  Any language can and should be changed to reflect the needs of your community.  According to the townships, in order to acquire a conditional use permit to operate an anerobic digester accepting mostly food waste on land zoned agricultural, the application has the burden of establishing the following:

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Abandonment or Disrepair.  If the Co-digester is ever abandoned or enters into a state of disrepair, it shall be the responsibility of the property owner to notify the Township immediately; and to remove or properly maintain the Co-digester within six (6) months from the date the system enters such a state. 

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Contact Information for Owner/Operator of Co-digester: The owner or operator of the Co-digester shall provide their contact information to the Township and shall update their contact information on file with the Township within thirty (30) days of any change in said contact information.

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Decommissioning. 1. The applicant shall submit a decommissioning plan for the Co-digester and related facilities pursuant to the requirements of (applicable State's) Solid Waste Management Regulations when the Co-digester becomes functionally obsolete or is no longer in use. 2. All tanks or other structures that contained waste or have been contaminated with waste shall be processed and disposed of in accordance with State Solid Waste Management regulations (or other applicable state regulations).  3. Buildings, tanks, supporting structures and other physical components may be refurbished for continued use, reclaimed, or adapted for other farm use, or dismantled and recycled or disposed of. 4. The owner of the Co-digester shall notify the Township immediately upon cessation or abandonment of the operation and shall be responsible for the removal of the manure and food waste from the Co-digester facility within sic (6) weeks from the date the operations cease. 5. The Co-digester shall be removed and all associated buildings or facilities shall be removed or repurposed as set forth in the decommissioning plan withing twelve (12) months from cessation or abandonment of operation. 6. At the time of issuance of the permits for the construction of the Co-digester, the owner shall provide to the Department of Environmental Protection (Department of Natural Resources, depending on the State), financial security in an amount required by the DEP/DNR to decommission the facility.  7.  If no financial security is required by the DEP/DNR, the Co-digester owner shall be required to provide financial security in a form and amount acceptable to the Township to secure the performance of the decommissioning of the Co-digester as set forth in the decommissioning plan.  8. The amount of the financial security shall be renegotiated every five (5) years for the life of the operations.  ​

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Emergency Services: Applicant will provide a site-specific set of operating procedures and maintenance procedures for the Co-digester, which shall include an emergency services plan or emergency action plan which incorporates appropriate training for Township or regional emergency service providers including fire department(s), EMS, and police at the applicant's expense.

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Gas Compression Station:  1. Applicant shall identify, on a plan submitted with the conditional use application to permits a Co-digester the proposed location, including all setbacks and property lines, of the Gas Compression Station to be used in connection with the Co-digester. 2. Separate zoning and land development approval shall be required for a Gas Compression Station. 3.  Gas Compression Station shall not be located closer than two thousand five hundred (2,500') feet from the property line with a structure utilized as a dwelling, school, daycare, nursing home, a retirement center, or hospital.

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Impacts on Neighboring Properties. 1. The applicant shall address and document performance standards for siting to minimize impacts on neighboring properties which shall include considerations of topography, odor, prevailing wind patterns, proximity to nonagricultural properties, operational noise, buffering and screening, and specific hours of operation. 2. Co-digester and associated structures and buildings shall blend into the agricultural character of the applicable agricultural zoning district and the surrounding topography.  3.  The application shall include site-specific architectural renderings of the facade of all proposed improvements associated with the Co-digester and a street view profile. The facade and street renderings shall demonstrate that the proposed improvements and site layout will be designed in a manner consistent with the adjacent community and neighborhood and with those purposes that the applicable agricultural zoning district are intended to protect and promote. 4. The design shall include a landscape buffer sufficient to create (within 5 years of planting) a complete visual screen between all aspects of the Co-digester (except any flare apparatus) and adjacent properties and roadways. 5. The applicant shall submit renderings of how the Co-digester and associated buildings will be designed and constructed to ensure that the design of the Co-digester and such buildings will be agricultural and not industrial or commercial in nature. When analyzing such submission, the Board of Supervisors shall consider the prevailing architectural design in the vicinity of the subject farm.

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Lease and/or Easement Agreements: 1. Copies of all leases or easement agreements in the name of the applicant for any property on which there shall be located a Gas Compression Station or any pipeline associated with the Regional Anaerobic Digester. 2. Any property subject to an Agricultural Conservation easement or similar encumbrance, an approval letter from the Agricultural Advisory Board (or other easement holder) that the construction and operation of the Co-digester at the property will not constitute a violation of the terms of the easement.

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Livestock/Poultry Manure and other Materials. 1. All of the manure generated at the subject farm shall be used in the operation of the Co-digester and at least fifty-one (51%) percent of the manure used at the Co-digester shall come from animals housed on the farm of which the lot forms a part of or from animals housed on an adjoining property owned or operated by the operator of the subject farm.  2. The maximum radius from which the Co-digester can procure manure waste produced off-site shall be three (3) miles.  3.  All garbage, trash, and rubbish shall be stored indoors or in enclosed, screened areas not visible to the public or accessible by animals or rodents. ​

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Modifications of Design and Standards for Co-digester. 1. The Board of Supervisor may permit the modification of the design standards contained within this ordinance in order to encourage the use of efficient and innovative design or to address specific site conditions; however, no modifications shall apply to any other Zoning Ordinances or Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances outside this specific ordinance. 2. Applicant desiring to obtain approval for a modification of the design standards shall do so at the time the application for the conditional use for the Co-digester is made.

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​Odors. 1. A site-specific operation and maintenance plan to demonstrate that the Co-digester is designed, and will be constructed and operated, to ensure that the Co-digester will not produce malodor odors, or biogas leaks and resultant fugitive emissions.  2. A site-specific odor mitigation plan to demonstrate odor control measures and odor control devices to be implemented to control odors and mitigate impact on adjacent property owners. 3. Without in any way limiting the otherwise applicable standards for an odor mitigation plan, the plan required pursuant to this Section shall include consideration of, inter alia, prevailing winds at the subject lot.

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Permits and Approvals: 1. Copies of all permits and approvals which are required by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies or authorities for the construction and operation of the Co-digester, or if such permits and approvals shall not be issued until after the applicant submits the application for conditional use approval for the Co-digester, copies of all applications for such permits and approvals together with all supporting information which the applicant submitted to the governmental or quasi-governmental agencies or authorities in connection with such applications. 2. No application for conditional use approval shall be accepted unless and until the applicant at least applies for all permits and approvals which are required from other governmental or quasi-governmental agencies or authorities for the construction and use of the Co-digester. 3. Co-digester must be designed and constructed in compliance with applicable local, state, and federal codes and regulations and applicant must demonstrate compliance with all federal and state codes and regulations including compliance with the guidelines outlined in the publication "Manure Management for Environmental Protection," "Bureau of Water Quality Management Publication," and any revisions, supplements and successors thereto, of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") (or applicable State regulations).

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​Sale of Digestate or other Byproducts: There shall be no onsite commercial or retail sales of digestate or any other product or byproduct generated by the Co-digester unless permitted by the Board of Supervisors as part of the conditional use proceedings.

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Siting Co-digester and Set-backs. 1. The minimum lot area for the co-digester and all of its facilities shall be at a minimum 50 acres. The applicant shall not be allowed to subdivide the area used for the Co-digester from the remaining property but may enter into a lease agreement between the property owner and an operator of the Co-digester and such lease shall not constitute a subdivision for zoning or land development purposes. 2. The total maximum impervious surface added to a property in order to construct and operate a Co-digester shall be limited to no more than ten (10%) percent of the lot area and applicant shall preserve existing prime soils on the property as much as practically possible. 3. No building, accessory building or equipment related to the Co-digester shall be constructed closer than two hundred (200') feet from a property line, or closer than two thousand five hundred (2,500') feet from the property line of a property with a structure utilized as a dwelling, school, daycare, nursing home or retirement center, or hospital, on the date of the conditional use application, or whichever is greater. 4.  Unless site topography restricts otherwise, all buildings shall be built between lagoons and aboveground storage facilities and adjacent properties.   5. Except as otherwise provided for under the provisions of the (applicable State's) Nutrient Management and Odor Management requirements, no new underground storage, inground storage, trench silo, lagoon, earthen bank, or aboveground storage facility used for storing manure or organic slurry related to the Co-digester shall be located within five hundred (500') feet from any property line. 6. New driveways, parking lots (one parking space per employee is required), and stormwater facilities required for the Co-digester shall be a minimum of twenty (20') feet from any property line and shall be designed to create 4-way intersections with existing roads and driveways whenever possible. An applicant may use existing driveways and parking areas for the Co-digester located closer than twenty (20') feet from the property line if approved by the Board of Supervisors during the conditional use proceedings. 7. A maximum height of thirty-five (35') feet shall apply to all buildings related to the Co-digester facility except that a Co-digester tank that is designed to inflate and deflate in capturing the biogas shall not exceed forty-five (45') feet in height when fully inflated. 8. The maximum height for any flares related to the Co-digester facility shall be forty-five (45') feet. The maximum heigh for a flare may be increased by the Board of Supervisors if required by a state agency as part of issuing a permit for the Co-digester, but in any event, not higher than fifty-five (55') feet.

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Sources of Food Waste. 1. A report certified by the applicant to be true, correct, and complete confirming the source of all food waste, including the name and location of the source of such waste, the volume thereof to be delivered to the Co-digester, and the frequency of such deliveries.  2.The maximum range from which the Co-digester may procure liquid food waste shall be no more than ten (10) miles from subject farm. 3. The report required pursuant to this Section shall include copies of any and all leases, contracts, or other agreements pertaining to the source of all food waste provided that the applicant shall redact from those document all financial information. 4. All food waste received as part of the Co-digester shall be stored indoors, and no outdoor storage of food waste or storage of food waste in open vessels is permitted. 

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​Testing of Food Waste and More. 1. As a condition by the Board of Supervisors to permit a Co-digester, the Co-digester shall be subject, at a minimum, to the condition to test each truck load of a. incoming liquid food waste, and b. each vessel of digestate for the presence of PFAS, heavy metals, and microplastics.  2. The Board of Supervisor may also require that the testing shall include the animals on the subject farm and said testing shall be done at a laboratory acceptable to the Township and the applicant. The applicant shall notify the Township of the results of the testing pursuant to the applicable law or as otherwise deemed appropriate by the Township at the time of the conditional use hearing. ​

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​​​​Traffic Impact Study. A traffic impact study shall be prepared pursuant to the requirements and standards of Section 516 "Traffic Impact Studies" of the Townships Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance and shall include, at a minimum, all intersections which non-passenger motor vehicles will utilize for travel to or from the Co-digester.​

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Transportation Study. 1. A transportation study, detailing the effect of the Co-digester on local roadways, including the effect of vehicle weight, congestion and noise. 2. Without limiting the foregoing in any manner, no trucks greater than 6,000 pounds may use any Township road for the purpose of accessing the Co-digester.  3. Additionally, applicant shall provide sufficiently long stacking lanes into the facility. so that vehicles waiting to be loaded/unloaded will not backup onto public streets. 

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Use and Transmission of Biogas. 1. Any biogas generated from the Co-digester must be used on the subject farm or transported off subject farm via pipeline, subject to (any township's ordinance on transporting biogas using a pipeline). 2. The biogas generated from the Co-digester shall not be liquified or compressed on-site for purposes of transporting it off of the lot using trucks or other motor vehicles. 3. Biogas has be transported to a Compression Station via underground pipeline, the right-of-way for which the applicant must certify that was obtained through negotiations with affected property owners and not obtained through condemnation proceedings. 4.  As part of the conditional use application, applicant must provide a document acceptable to the Township's attorney that any zoning approval shall automatically become null and void if any right-of-way required for transporting the biogas to an existing pipeline is acquired through condemnation proceedings. Such document shall be recorded against the property as a condition of any approval and must be recorded prior to the issuance of any zoning and building permits for the Co-digester seeking to transport biogas off a property. 

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Written Confirmation from Utilities: Written confirmation from the provider of any utility service(s) which are required for the operation of the Co-digester.

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