PA Bill Number: SB1198
Title: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and ...
Description: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and .. ...
Last Action: Referred to AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Last Action Date: May 17, 2024
Mercer County (PA) munitions maker claims security impact outweighs harm to neighbors :: 04/24/2015
MERCER – While a Greene Township manufacturer of less-lethal munitions has denied that its activities produce intolerable noise, noxious gases or foul smells that impact its neighbors, the company also has invoked what might be called a national security defense.
A group of residential neighbors sued Combined Systems Inc. in December alleging the company's outdoor testing of irritant and smoke emitters, tear ball grenades and flash bangs “ruin(s) the quality of life for plaintiffs at their residence(s).”
The company at 388 Kinsman Road near Jamestown said it sells products to local, state and the federal governments and “approved foreign nations.”
These “products and sales are essential to the defense of the United States of America and the operations of law enforcement agencies,” including the FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security, the company said in its answer to the suit.
“(T)he social utility of (Combined's) actions in manufacturing, testing and selling the said products to the United States government, law enforcement agencies and allied countries outweighs the harm allegedly occurring to plaintiffs,” the company said.
The company also claimed Pennsylvania has granted it immunity from the lawsuit as it pertains to “an outdoor shooting range located upon its property at which it discharges certain of its munitions.”
There are no laws that prohibit the company's operations, including outdoor testing, Combined said.
Combined also said it has taken “substantial steps to reduce any alleged harm to the plaintiffs or their land” by limiting outdoor testing to weekday business hours, ceasing outdoor testing of tear gas and realigning the shooting range “so as to preclude any debris going upon the plaintiff's property.”
The company claimed a statute of limitations that limits the relevance of any complaints to two years prior to the date the suit was filed, Dec. 2.
Outdoor testing of some products “does cause noise and smoke” but offensive noises or substances do not invade neighboring properties, the company said.
The company set up shop in 1995 and has grown to 18 buildings at the site – another is under construction – and has 238 employees.
