The amount of environmental harms and potential environmental harms mentioned in this article by Brendan Gibbons of the Time-Tribune is heart-stopping: leachate leaking into our ground water, drill cuttings setting off radio-active detection units, a “thermal event” (read: fire) at the landfill, “chasing the voids” to try to prevent large scale mine subsidence and collapse, leachate lines running under our neighborhoods, sea gulls polluting our waters with their feces, the list goes on.
Is all of this a “gift”, too? Since this is what Louis DeNaples calls the pathetic, laughable host municipality “agreement” with Dunmore.
We have heard in the past that the DEP considers this is a “state-of-the-art” landfill. If leaking ground water, thermal events, smells, radio-active alarms being set off, etc., are allowed to occur at such a facility, it just goes to show the danger of hosting a landfill and that anything can happen despite precautionary measures–and that the community will be the victim when it does.
And Louis DeNaples saying our regional reputation won’t be hurt because taking in out of state garbage lowers municipal disposal fees just shows the incredible disconnect between KSL’s pursuits and those of the community. Our reputation as a dumping ground is not tied to disposal fees–not everything is tied to money. But funny how only the “benefits” of the landfill have been quantified in dollars to date, when it seems by this article the harms are quantifiable, as well. KSL appears to have a solid idea how much the cost of stopping the persistent leachate leaking into our ground water will be. Where is that number in the harms/benefit analysis?
People in the surrounding neighborhoods did not know a landfill was nearby until it got big enough to stink, to see, to bring foul birds to our area, to lower our property values, and to bring greater and greater risks of harm as it grows. Now we are saying stop. Enough!
Allow us to answer Louis DeNaples last question in the article: “I come and say hello to you,” he said. “What more do you want?”
We want our community to be safe, the smells and birds to be gone, and our homes to stop losing value. We DON’T want a landfill expansion in middle of our thriving residential community. We DON’T want our area’s reputation to be the dumping ground of the Northeast with a mountain of garbage as its symbol and welcome sign. We want the landfill closed and capped. Simple as that.
Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA
January 11, 2015
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/a-day-at-the-landfill-1.1815804