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http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13689386.htm?source=yahoodist&content=phi_newsWal-Mart plan roils PennsvilleFoes want to protect a refuge. The chain says a new Supercenter would help.PENNSVILLE, N.J. - Like so much land in this mostly rural part of Salem County, the old Sinnickson farm is teetering between preservation and development.
Bordering the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, the 79-acre property - a ribbon of salt marsh, meadows and fallow fields - is eyed for development as a Wal-Mart Supercenter. A smaller Wal-Mart is less than a half-mile away in Pennsville.
Environmentalists contend the 222,000-square-foot superstore and its 1,400 parking spaces would make a poor neighbor for a wildlife refuge.
Officials for Wal-Mart, which has launched a public-relations campaign promising to "conserve at least one parcel of priority wildlife habitat for every parcel developed" in the next 10 years, said the entire site would not be developed, but it did not offer more specific plans.
The vast grasslands of the Sinnickson property, at Route 49 and Lighthouse Road, sit at the headwaters of Mill Creek, which experts consider one of New Jersey's most ecologically sensitive migratory bird habitats.
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