“After six years, the only thing growing faster than the heap of garbage is the list of reasons to deny it.” —Patrick Clark, Friends of Lackawanna

https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/.../article_af66eb90...

Excerpts:

The state Department of Environmental Protection notified the Keystone Sanitary Landfill this week of more than five dozen technical deficiencies in its 42-year expansion application.

The DEP’s letter cited deficiencies in a variety of areas, including the landfill’s contingency plan, facility plan, eventual closure plan, groundwater, odor control and leachate generation.

The deficiency letter, signed by David F. Matcho, the environmental engineer manager in the DEP’s Waste Management Program, noted a substantial underestimation in Keystone’s projected leachate generation. Leachate is the liquid that percolates through piles of trash.

Keystone estimated it would generate nearly 13.6 million gallons of leachate annually. However, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, it generated almost 73.2 million gallons, according to the deficiency letter. From July 1, 2019, to June 30, with data missing from November and April, the landfill generated about 55.5 million gallons, Matcho wrote.

Pat Clark, a leader of anti-landfill expansion grassroots group Friends of Lackawanna, noted that Tuesday’s letter is Keystone’s fifth deficiency letter from the DEP.

“At some point, it becomes clear that these items are not fixable,” he said in an email. “This deficiency letter, almost exactly six years after the expansion proposal was submitted, is still 10 dense pages filled with 60 items.”

“How can DEP grant an expansion when these issues remain open, unclear and evidently unsolvable?” he said. “DEP is going to have to make a decision on this expansion soon. And after six years, the only thing growing faster than the heap of garbage is the list of reasons to deny it.”