Highlights:
"The ruling validates what we've been saying for a very long time now that the DEP made a mistake in approving the Phase III permit, and the landfill is not being run as responsibly as it always claims it is..."
"The DEP is going to review everything. We very much like and welcome the opportunity to be part of that process, to give them the perception or ... to give them the background from the citizen standpoint about what needs to be there..."
DEP ordered to reevaluate permit for landfill in Lackawanna County
After hundreds of odor complaints and issues with wastewater, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board ruled on Tuesday that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) needs to revisit its permit for the Keystone Sanitary Landfill.
"The Department must assess on remand whether additional measures to control odors and leachate, some of which have been required by a recent Consent Order and Agreement, warrant inclusion in the landfill’s permit or changes to the landfill’s operating plans," according to a decision by the board.
Keystone applied to expand the landfill skyward in March 2014. DEP, which administers and enforces the Solid Waste Management Act, approved the permit for that expansion in June 2021. The landfill started placing waste in what they refer to as "Phase III" in January 2024.
The landfill is owned by Louis and Dominick DeNaples. It's situated between the Throop and Dunmore boroughs in Lackawanna County.
Environmental advocacy groups formed in response to the plans to expand, including Friends of Lackawanna (FOL), who challenged the permit.
Patrick Clark, from the nonprofit, said their concerns over leachate discharge and odor have been heard. The Sierra Club is listed as an intervenor.
"The ruling validates what we've been saying for a very long time now that the DEP made a mistake in approving the Phase III permit, and the landfill is not being run as responsibly as it always claims it is," said Clark.
Al Magnotta, a representative from Keystone, said their permit is still valid and they will continue to comply with leachate and odor management.
"What the judge said, there's nothing wrong with issuing the permit, but it needs to be enhanced with additional operational controls, if you will,” he said.
Clark said it's unclear what exactly will happen because of the ruling.
"What the remand means is that the board has said to DEP 'you have to look at this permit and now take into account everything that you know about the landfill since you issued that permit, in addition to everything that is in this ruling,'” he said.
Wastewater
A harms-benefits analysis was part of the permitting process. Erika Bloxham, a facility specialist in the Department’s waste management program in the Northeast region, was the primary author. Her conclusion is mentioned in Tuesday's ruling.
She concluded that the benefits of the Phase III Expansion did not outweigh the harms "... primarily because in her opinion Keystone had not mitigated the excess leachate production to the fullest extent possible. However, Ms. Bloxham’s supervisor, Roger Bellas, the waste program manager for the Northeast region, disagreed and authored the conclusion of the analysis for the Department," the ruling states.
It goes on to say: "Bellas testified that he felt somewhat responsible for the issues Keystone has experienced since the permit modification was issued, while at the same time also feeling that he could not have foreseen all the things that have happened."
Leachate forms when rainwater filters through waste placed in a landfill. When this liquid comes in contact with buried wastes, it leaches, or draws out, chemicals or constituents from those wastes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The order states DEP knew there was an issue with excess leachate generation when it issued the Phase III permit modification. Since then, the landfill has been producing more than double the leachate that it predicted and storing more leachate in its lagoons than allowed by the department, according to the ruling.
Magnotta said, and the ruling reflects, that the landfill has put in more storage for leachate, adding the state allows them to store leachate at only 25%, which, in the past, they have gone over. They also now ship it off site to facilities to be treated.
The ruling also states "because of Keystone’s excess leachate storage capacity, its use of temporary storage tanks, and its offsite hauling of leachate, the lagoons have never overflowed and have never been at imminent risk of overflowing."
"There is no evidence of environmental harm from Keystone hauling leachate from the landfill for offsite treatment," according to the ruling.
The smell
Landfill operators must have a nuisance minimization and control plan (NMCP) to minimize and control things like vectors, noise, dust, and odors that arise from the operation of the landfill and could affect offsite areas.
“By their nature, waste disposal operations have the potential to create odors, and periodic odors will likely occur at any landfill,” the ruling states.
DEP has received hundreds of odor complaints from residents who live next to or near the landfill, according to the court document.
Last April Keystone was ordered to pay $575,000 to Dunmore, Throop and the DEP after more than a year of odor complaints from residents. The consent order and agreement also set out the steps the landfill must take to prevent future odor issues, which includes more testing and controlling leachate.
Odors dispense within a half mile of the landfill, said Magnotta, who believes the landfill is blamed for most bad smells in the region.
"If you look at the odors and what the department has verified, it's probably less than 5% ... because anything that's different is blamed on us, and we've tried really hard, and we've documented, and we presented at the hearing, you know, maps showing that these, these complaints are coming from five miles away," he said.
Keystone recently began using drones to monitor surface emissions. They also do ground monitoring.
Solutions sought
"FOL and Sierra Club have not shown that Keystone’s Phase III permit modification should be suspended, revoked, overturned, or vacated instead of being allowed to remain in effect pending remand," according to the order.
Clark said the compliance history dictates that the landfill should be shut down. But regardless, they want more in the moment data about the environmental impacts of the landfill.
"The landfill is a self reporting entity, so any tests that are done ... unless there's a violation follow up, the landfill is submitting their data to DEP ... that does not include transparency data to the public as well," he said. "So we would like to see a greater sharing of data, but also greater visibility of that data. So it's not always after the fact, after a problem has been identified."
Friends of Lackawanna is unsure what the next step will be after Tuesday's ruling.
"The DEP is going to review everything. We very much like and welcome the opportunity to be part of that process, to give them the perception or ... to give them the background from the citizen standpoint about what needs to be there," Clark said.
Magnotta said the DEP does intense inspections of the landfill every week. They measure the lagoons and take photos.
Keystone complies with those inspections, which Magnotta calls “appropriate.”
"Our goal is to be the best landfill in Pennsylvania. I think we are,” he said.