SMETHPORT — With one abstention, the McKean County Planning Commission voted unanimously for final approval Tuesday for Phase One of the Mount Jewett Evaporation Site, a land development, the Seven Mile Mineral Project, in Sergeant Township.

Prior to the vote, Nicole Bartoletta and Steve Dombroski of Highland Field Services LLC, explained the project, which is located across the road from Georgia Pacific, and will involve removing heavy minerals and salt from water used in the fracking process of directional drilling. Some of the rare earth minerals could possibly be marketable. Others would be sent to a landfill.

The developer’s plans call for using four buildings, one of which already exists. The first building is to be the site of pre-treatments. Mineral recovery is slated for the second and third buildings, and evaporation and reuse will be in the fourth structure.

When questioned about the plant’s design capacity, Dombroski said it would handle 7,500 barrels a day — one barrel equals 42 gallons.

After receiving a satisfactory answer about noise generated at the site, Leroy “Butch” Schaffer inquired about the lighting.

“It will be LED,” Dombroski replied.

Construction could take a year

Commission member Richard Kallenborn of Port Allegany did not vote.

“I must abstain because our company could be a bidder on the project,” he explained.

In personnel matters, commission members Kallenborn, Schaffer, Anthony Clarke and Nancy Rathbun were reappointed to four-year terms.

Planning Director Jeremy Morey introduced Gabrielle Neubert of St. Marys as the planning office’s GIS summer intern. She will be a junior at the State University of New York College at Geneseo.

Morey noted that a planning commission meeting will be held in August.