In the aftermath of the DEP public meeting on Wednesday, it is clear that we must demand more time to study the potentially devastating impacts of the landfill expansion, as residents noted in the Time-Tribune article by Brendan Gibbons.
Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA
Brendan Gibbons, Staff Writer
February 26, 2015
Exerpts.
More information. More time.
Those were the requests of several members of the public who attended a state environmental regulators’ meeting Wednesday night regarding Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed expansion.
“I had many more questions,” said Scranton resident Geri Flannery, who took the podium twice to press Keystone landfill consultant Albert Magnotta and officials with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“Four hours is not enough to give the general public to ask questions,” she said, adding that the landfill has had years to prepare for its expansion.
Only new regulations will combat some of the quality of life issues residents raised.
Mr. Scavo’s question for legislators: “Why are we trying to build garbage as our premier industry?”
“The fight isn’t here with (Louis) DeNaples or the DEP,” he said. “The fight is with your legislators. Any legislator that isn’t in tune with this issue should have primary opposition.”
Friends of Lackawanna brought its members out in force. They sat in a green-shirted bloc in the center of the auditorium and one by one approached the podium to ask questions derived from months of research.
Core member and Dunmore resident Pat Clark said the meeting likely informed those who didn’t have a wealth of background knowledge, but “a lot of this is what we already knew.”
Public opposition to the expansion is obvious, he said.
“The officials tried to answer as best they could, but it was obvious that the community is speaking loud and clear what should be the outcome of this expansion application,” he said.