ICYMI - The Auditor General's office denied a joint request made by councils of Scranton, Dunmore and Jessup to review DEP's approval process relating to KSL.
What was FOL's take? “This is the newest addition to the never-ending list of instances of the state looking the other way ... for anything and everything that has to do with this landfill ... They don’t want to police it. Or audit the permitting process. Yet we have to live with it.”
Auditor general's office won't review DEP's approval of landfill's expansion permit
Officials in Scranton, Dunmore and Jessup requested performance audit of approval process; DEP maintains approval decision meets state regulatory requirements
BY JEFF HORVATH STAFF WRITER
The state auditor general’s office won’t review the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s controversial 40-year expansion application.
After a seven-year review process spanning thousands of pages of documentation, plans and reports, the DEP approved a major permit modification for the landfill, located in Dunmore and Throop, on June 3. The approval — which the grassroots anti-expansion group Friends of Lackawanna appealed to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board — gives the landfill the capacity to add 188 billion pounds of additional garbage through 2060, tripling its total volume of waste.
In the wake of that decision, Scranton City Council voted in June to request the state Department of the Auditor General conduct a performance audit of the DEP’s process for approving the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill’s expansion permit application. Dunmore and Jessup borough councils later voted to do the same.
But in a Wednesday letter to Scranton City Council Solicitor Kevin Hayes, F. Stephenson Matthes, chief counsel for the auditor general’s office, wrote the office is unable to fulfill the request.
“As I’m sure you are aware, our department continues to face several challenges, including severe budget and staffing constraints, which greatly limit our ability to take on audits like the one you request,” Matthes wrote. “We understand and acknowledge that this has been an ongoing issue of concern for the community.”
The response frustrated local officials who requested the audit and anti-expansion advocates who endorsed it.
“I thought it was a weak excuse from the auditor general,” said Scranton City Council President Bill Gaughan. “It’s very disheartening. I mean it’s not like we’re asking for an audit of a pension fund. We’re talking about people’s lives here. We’re talking about their health (and) the future of our community.”
The auditor general’s office not conducting the requested performance audit is the most recent example of state government failing and ignoring Northeast Pennsylvania residents, Pat Clark, a leader of Friends of Lackawanna, wrote in an email on behalf of the group.
“This is the newest addition to the never-ending list of instances of the state looking the other way ... for anything and everything that has to do with this landfill,” Clark wrote. “They don’t want to police it. Or audit the permitting process. Yet we have to live with it.”
In May, the state attorney general’s office confirmed it is investigating the landfill, though the office declined to elaborate on the nature of the investigation.
Dunmore Mayor Timothy Burke and Councilwoman Janet Brier both called the response from the auditor general’s office disappointing.
“Going up (against) who we’re going up against, it doesn’t surprise me at all,” Burke said.
Efforts to reach Jessup Borough Council President Gerald Crinella were unsuccessful.
Attorney Jeffrey Belardi, who represents the landfill, argued the DEP’s expansion permit application review process was very thorough.
“I don’t think there was any stone left unturned so, even if there was an audit, it really wouldn’t concern me,” Belardi said. “I think DEP does a good job and I think they’d be able to defend themselves.”
DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly provided a written statement.
“The Department of Environmental Protection maintains that its decision to approve Keystone Landfill’s Phase III expansion meets state regulatory requirements,” the statement reads.
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