The distinct putrid stench from the Keystone Sanitary Landfill nauseated residents of Dunmore and Throop over the past few weeks as they flocked to social media to complain about insufferable smells and a reporting process that is “designed to fail.” Article 1 Section 27 PA Constitution – We have the right to CLEAN AIR!
Excerpt: The odors will only get worse if the landfill receives approval for its proposed expansion that would allow it to continue piling garbage for nearly half a century, said Michele Dempsey, a founding member of Friends of Lackawanna. “Let’s be clear, this is the landfill on its absolute best behavior as it is being assessed for a 50-year expansion, and it still can’t control its malodors,” she said in an email. “Our only recourse is the DEP, and their reporting process is absurd and their oversight is impotent.”
Write to Governor Tom Wolf and tell him that his PA DEP must deny this expansion:
https://www.governor.pa.gov/contact/
https://m.thetimes-tribune.com/.../as-complaints-of...
As complaints of rotten smell multiply, landfill critics said DEP reporting process flawed
BY FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY, STAFF WRITER / PUBLISHED: JANUARY 16, 2020
As the state Department of Environmental Protection investigates reports of a rotten smell that permeated parts of Dunmore and Throop on Monday, critics of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill are calling for reform on how the state handles odor reporting.
The DEP received six complaints from residents of the boroughs on Monday night, with a DEP responder traveling to the homes of all six complainants to speak with them and confirm the odor. Those who complained told the inspector it smelled like rotten eggs or sulfur, with the DEP employee calling it possibly “garbage or decay,” according to a DEP incident report. One resident called it “something else that is difficult to define.”
The inspector recommended follow-ups with both the landfill and Maid-Rite Specialty Foods at 105 Keystone Industrial Park Road, Dunmore. The inspector smelled the odor outside of Maid-Rite. The inspector did not smell anything at the landfill’s guard shack Monday night, and neither did the guard, according to the report.
A landfill employee told the DEP Tuesday that “they had some odor issues there in the last 10 days,” according to the report. Landfill officials told the DEP that it is working on new measures to control site odors, including more cover materials, a specialized coating known as Posi-Shell and a foam product on lagoons and ponds to contain smells, according to the report.
Several of the complaints said the smell has been especially a problem for at least two to three weeks.
Dunmore and Throop residents flocked to social media, with dozens of Facebook comments on local grassroots activists’ pages complaining about the smell or reporting process.
‘Designed to fail’
To be reported as a malodor from the landfill, which is the most severe type of odor that causes an annoyance and discomfort to the public, a DEP inspector has to confirm that an off-site odor exists, determine if it comes from the landfill as well as its intensity, duration and impact to the public; and investigate landfill operations to see if there was an operational problem, DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said in an email.
The DEP prefers to have an inspector meet with people at their property, she said. Complaints are recorded as soon as someone calls the department’s hotline.
The process is “laughably flawed,” said Pat Clark, a leader of anti-landfill expansion grassroots group Friends of Lackawanna.
“Their mission is to protect the environment for the citizens of Pennsylvania, yet they place the entire burden on whether or not a landfill — which is rotting garbage — smells on the shoulders of the citizens instead of just doing their job,” he said.
Because the DEP sends inspectors to people’s homes or places of work to confirm the smell, the smell will often have shifted elsewhere by the time an inspector arrives, Clark said, explaining it can take hours for someone to show up.
“The smell doesn’t sit there like a green cloud hovering over an individual house,” he said. “It moves.”
He called the reporting system “designed to fail.”
“The more people complain, the more people there are to get to, the longer that list takes to get through,” he said.
There is no set time limit for how quickly a DEP employee has to respond to a complaint, but they try to respond as quickly as possible, Connolly said.
‘The process is flawed’
The odors will only get worse if the landfill receives approval for its proposed expansion that would allow it to continue piling garbage for nearly half a century, said Michele Dempsey, a founding member of Friends of Lackawanna.
“Let’s be clear, this is the landfill on its absolute best behavior as it is being assessed for a 50-year expansion, and it still can’t control its malodors,” she said in an email. “Our only recourse is the DEP, and their reporting process is absurd and their oversight is impotent.”
The need for reform goes beyond the DEP’s reporting system, Clark said, calling for reform on how the department treats and inspects landfills. He pointed to the DEP allowing self-reporting and the department’s analysis that the benefits of the landfill’s expansion outweigh the known and potential harms.
If people call the DEP to report an odor, they often don’t want a stranger showing up at their door, especially late at night, said Dunmore Councilman Vince Amico, who received complaints from residents about the rotten egg smell on Jan. 10..
Residents also might not be able to wait around for two hours until an inspector arrives to meet with them and verify the smell, Amico said, emphasizing that he doesn’t fault the inspectors.
“I think the process is flawed,” he said. “The onus is on the complainant to prove that there’s a problem.”
The councilman suggested several remedies, including setting up some type of monitoring system in the town and simply having inspectors respond to problem areas without actually visiting anyone’s specific address.
Both Clark and Amico feel that residents often don’t even realize they need to call the DEP to report problem odors, which leads to fewer reports.
‘Worst I’ve ever smelled’
Liz Hahn-Mattioli called the DEP at 8:24 p.m. Monday to report a rotten egg smell that seeped through her home on Dunmore Street in Throop.
She told a DEP inspector around 10 p.m. the smell was so strong that she and her three children all got headaches, said Hahn-Mattioli, the president of Concerned Citizens of Throop, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of borough residents. By the time the inspector arrived, however, the smell was much less pungent.
“It was the worst I’ve ever smelled,” she said, explaining she has lived there for 20 years. “I’ve never had that smell permeate through my house.”
To reach the DEP’s 24-hour emergency hotline, call 570-826-2511 or 1-800-541-2050.
Contact the writer: flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181; @flesnefskyTT on Twitter