A proposed processing plant turning up to 75,000 chickens a day into feed and pet food is expected to come under public scrutiny when the project comes up for a zoning hearing today in East Donegal Township.

Project backers say the new state-of-the-art facility would produce no odors or waste, pose no health threats and give poultry farmers within hundreds of miles a more economical and humane way of disposing of spent hens.

Currently, chickens that no longer lay eggs often are trucked to slaughter houses in New Jersey, Virginia and Canada or are killed and buried on local farms, which can pose environmental problems, according to project partners.

"I think it's a win-win situation for everybody," said Jason McClenaghan, who owns farmland at 895 Gibble Road, just south of Mount Joy Borough, where the 18,000-square-foot facility would be built.

"I came out here to live in the country, and I don't want to devalue that."

But some residents in the area have concerns. The facility would be located within a mile of both Donegal High School and the Kraybill Campus of Lancaster Mennonite School.

"I heard there are some concerns," said Mel Hess, a Lancaster attorney representing the project.

The township Zoning Hearing Board will take testimony today on a special exception application being sought to allow the plant in an agricultural zone.

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the East Donegal Township office, 190 Rock Point Road, Maytown.

A township official said copies of proposal plans have been requested by various parties in recent weeks but declined to say by whom.

A Donegal School District official said the school district was aware of the project.

John Webber, principal of the Kraybill Campus of Lancaster Mennonite School, said Monday afternoon that he was not aware of the proposal but intended to learn more before the hearing.

According to McClenaghan, who built a home and barn on the property in 2005, the project would be a partnership of himself; his wife, Margaret Lynn McClenaghan; Melhorn Sales, Service and Trucking of Mount Joy; and Great Plains Protein, LLC, the Iowa company that developed the poultry recycling system and protein-based meal.

Great Plains has processing facilities in Iowa and Texas. They process 1 million birds per month.

The company's Web site said Great Plains started out to find a humane way to accommodate the ever-expanding supply of spent hens.

The process begins with freshly killed poultry -- no parts, only whole birds -- that are homogenized, shaped, dried and ground into meal.

No poultry would be killed at the processing facility. Rather, the poultry would have to have been euthanized within 12 hours of delivery to the facility.

A biological control system using extreme heat would kill any pathogens, though the process monitors for salmonella and bacteria, according to the company.

All of each chicken is converted into feed.

"For years, indeed decades, poultry farmers in Lancaster County have been burdened with the problem of disposal of spent hens," McClenaghan says in his application for a special exception.

"The method used by Great Plains is one that is rapidly gaining acceptance and approval of not only the agriculture community but also the humane society nationwide," McClenaghan said in the application.

"The process would produce no appreciable noise, odors or dust, with the only real evidence of the process housed in the facility being steam coming from the heaters on a cold day."

There would be approximately eight trucks a day coming to the facility with spent hens and occasionally others leaving with feed, according to the application.

McClenaghan said a Great Plains representative would be at the hearing to answer questions.

McClenaghan, who grew up on a farm in Lancaster County and works in sales in the sports industry, says he has been approached by no one with concerns about the project.

"I've heard nothing. I kind of wish, if they have concerns, they would just ask me. It's going to be closer to me than anybody else. I don't want to do anything that has noise or odor.

"The people have to get an education what it's all about. I'd probably be curious, too."

acrable@lnpnews.com