This Letter to the Editor in the Scranton Times Tribune by Julia Betti emphasizes what the saddest and most devastating repercussion will be if the Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion happens--bright young minds will not return to a place surrounded by mountains of garbage that affects the health and lives of those in our community.
Letters to the Editor 10/3/2019
TIMES=TRIBUNE READERS / PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 3, 2019
Bad move on landfill
Editor: History was made recently when Dunmore Borough Council voted to make it easier for Keystone Sanitary Landfill to expand.
As a young adult who has lived in this area her entire life and followed this pressing issue, I am extremely saddened by this decision. The repercussions of this monumental decision will be felt for decades.
Throughout college, the topic of life after graduation comes up frequently. I regularly think about where life will take me and where I will potentially settle down. Ideally, I would love to eventually move back to Northeast Pennsylvania. Younger people can come back to their hometowns and bring their knowledge and expertise to help their local communities with fresh, new perspectives.
However, many people, including myself, do not want to live in a place surrounded by mountains of garbage that affects the health and lives of many individuals. Bright, young minds will refrain from using their innovation to create economic opportunity and help revitalize NEPA because they will not want to live in an environmentally unsafe place.
The four Dunmore council members who voted in favor of the landfill should think of the repercussions this immense decision creates. Please think about the little children running around Sherwood Park in Dunmore who smell the odors from the landfill and the health complications that can arise.
Please think about students at the Dunmore and Mid Valley school districts who may be impacted. Please think about residents of surrounding areas who have leachate in their groundwater.
Four votes are not worth risking the lives of thousands of people or the profits to be made from this expansion. Every vote matters and sadly the four votes for the landfill expansion were not made in the citizens’ best interests or the best interests of NEPA for decades to come.
JULIA BETTI
DICKSON CITY