Excellent letter to the Editor!
https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/…/letters-to-the-editor-7-…
Landfill’s unhealthy benefits
Editor: Every “benefit” in the recently released state’s environmental assessment for the proposed Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion is economic and social.
Considering the economic advantages of the host agreement, goods and services purchased locally, employment and employee-related costs and the annual reimbursement to Keystone College for its environmental education program, the benefit to each person in Throop and Dunmore equals about $7.55 daily.
The landfill’s “harms” include litter, noise, vectors, fires, stormwater, leachate reaching the Lackawanna River and groundwater, and harms to our air with odors and toxins. Every harm is environmental and affects community health.
Some harms currently may affect our health. Exposure to benzene increases the risk of cancer, the second-leading cause of death in Pennsylvania. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leukemia rates for Lackawanna County were higher than Philadelphia County in 2012-2016.
According to a state Department of Health report, Keystone landfill was monitored for toxins. The monitoring period for the landfill was January to April 2016. Elevated levels of benzene were detected. As a result, the report recommended “a fence line air monitoring program that includes publicly accessible real-time results.”
The landfill still seeks approval from the Department of Environmental Protection air quality staff and must provide details of a comprehensive air monitoring program. I recommend calling the DEP air quality staff and telling them that, due to the current release of toxins, the monitoring program is the only one that should be approved.
I should be able to look at my phone and see hourly levels of benzene and other toxins in the air so that I can better protect my family. The air quality staff should deny the landfill’s application because any risk to the quality of our air, water and environment is too much, and definitely not worth $7.55 a day.
SAMANTHA MALONEY
SCRANTON