4/28/2015: State, federal health agencies describe landfill health study

  THROOP — Chemicals and particles that might waft through the air around Keystone Sanitary Landfill will face eight to 12 months of scrutiny from state and federal health agencies.

Staff from the State Department of Health and federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry explained the health impacts study they plan to conduct around the landfill in the wake of its proposed expansion. Roughly 20 people from these agencies and the state Department of Environmental Protection were present at a Monday open house at the Throop Civic Center.

Air will be the main focus of the health study, as it represents the most likely pathway for any potential hazardous materials to enter the body.

“We want to tell them what’s in whatever they’re smelling,” Health Department deputy secretary for health planning and assessment Martin Raniowski said.

Through the month of May, the Health Department will review existing air and water data, mostly from DEP and landfill sampling efforts, he said.

From June to August, the Health Department will work with the state Department of Environmental Protection to take a new set of samples at multiple sites upwind and downwind of the landfill to better understand the chemical makeup of the air landfill neighbors breathe every day, he said.

The DEP brought its Mobile Analytical Unit, a sophisticated air quality lab in a van, to Throop for the event. The unit uses infrared light reflected off a gold array to measure methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, metals and volatile organic compounds, spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said.

The mobile lab will begin sampling this week and may return to the area over the summer, she said. The DEP will supplement that monitoring with portable canisters, she said.

By fall or early winter, the Health Department will interpret the data and publish a draft study, which will be open for public comment. A final report will come in early 2016, Mr. Raniowski said.

The federal agency will examine the Health Department’s methods and findings and will have to sign off on the agency’s work, he said.

“Not only do you have state experts taking a look at this, you’re going to have a national set of experts looking at this,” he said.

Though the agency has not previously done such a study for Keystone, it has experience with health impacts studies regarding landfills. Its most recent were in 2013 at Chestnut Valley Landfill and waste management firm Tervita’s Westmoreland Landfill, both in Fayette County, spokeswoman Amy Worden said.

The Health Department will also examine potential underground carbon dioxide issues in Dunmore, as described in a Sunday Times article, and make recommendations to the DEP, Mr. Raniowski said.

“They’re still evaluating whether it needs to be looked into further from a health standpoint,” said Roger Bellas, who heads the waste management program in the DEP’s Wilkes-Barre office.

DEP officials did not have an immediate response to that story. Staff members from multiple programs, including hazardous sites cleanup and abandoned mine reclamation, are revisiting previous reports done on the issue and will likely respond by the end of the week, Ms. Connolly said.

4/21/2015: Sewer authority has no record of landfill leachate bypass

Mr. Barrett [SSA Director] and other sewer authority staff say they do not know when or how often the landfill sends treated wastewater through a line that passes underneath Dunmore Cemetery and on through Green Ridge.

At a February community meeting on the landfill’s proposed expansion, Keystone landfill consultant Albert Magnotta referred to a sewer “bypass” that could send the landfill’s wastewater through Green Ridge instead of a dedicated line passing through upper Drinker Street.

The Times-Tribune then filed an open records request for any documentation of the “bypass,” as defined in the landfill’s industrial wastewater permit.

But sewer authority officials said that section only refers to a bypass of the landfill’s on-site treatment plant, which reduces contaminants from the landfill’s leachate to a level similar to ordinary sewer users.

That means the landfill must only notify the authority if it does not use the pretreatment plant and sends raw leachate through the sewers. The SSA found no such records.

The landfill’s permit does not refer to the alternate line, meaning the landfill is not legally obligated to inform the sewer authority if it sends leachate through Green Ridge, Mr. Barrett and municipal industrial pretreatment coordinator Tara Roche said.

“For the most part, it goes down the dedicated line,” Mr. Barrett said of the landfill’s treated wastewater. “I can’t say definitively when they may use that other line.”

Letter to the Editor 4/20/2015: Accentuate positive

 Editor: As someone who moved to the region just over six months ago, I thought it would be fitting to express my thoughts about what a great area in which we live.

I have lived in Hershey, New York City, Conshohocken and Huntington, West Virginia — all great places with their own great perks and benefits to their citizens. After moving to Northeast Pennsylvania, reading comments and listening to some of the attitudes of people here, it has occurred to me that maybe the citizens of this region need a reminder about what an awesome place this is to live.

There are two minor league sports teams, a successful arena, various theaters and performing arts centers that are prospering, any type of food you would want, malls and shopping areas and other forms of entertainment. The colleges and universities in this area are growing. The natural beauty that surrounds us with the Poconos is incredible. Traffic is almost nonexistent compared to big urban areas. Real estate is affordably priced. The proximity to Allentown, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Washington and other great Northeast cities is something that we take for granted but is a feather in our cap.

I know this region is great. It is growing and has a lot to offer. There are people who focus on negative and pessimistic thinking here. It’s time for business and community leaders, teachers, church leaders and others to believe and declare that we live in an amazing part of the United States and drown out people who speak otherwise. Great things are happening in NEPA and I’m proud to live and work here.

BRIAN SIPE

WILKES-BARRE

Letter to the Editor 4/19/2015: Reservoir gulls

 Editor: During the Department of Environmental Protection’s Keystone Landfill meeting in February, considerable discussion was devoted to groundwater sampling and possible contamination of aquifers.

Groundwater aquifers are important. However, most local residents are serviced by surface water reservoirs that are operated by Pennsylvania American Water Co. One of the largest PAWC reservoirs is Lake Scranton. The distance between the landfill and Lake Scranton is less than 3 miles. Lake Scranton water may be impacted by gulls that feed at the landfill.

The gull presence at Lake Scranton fluctuates during the year. Numbers peak during the late summer and fall. Gulls return to the lake from the direction of the landfill during the evening. They roost on the lake at night and return to feed at the landfill each day.

The gulls may not only foul the water with their droppings, but they could spread contamination from their bodies. Hundreds of gulls can be seen at the lake daily during the fall months.

A landfill handout from the meeting says, “The landfill accepts only municipal solid waste, i.e., household trash, and approved residual waste (from industries).”

Household trash might contain pet and human waste, medical waste, pesticides, herbicides, cleaners, paints, solvents, drug residue and other contaminants. No one inspects what goes into residential garbage.

Wastes go into the landfill. Gulls feed at the landfill. Gulls go to the lake. This is not a good scenario. Contaminants from a landfill do not belong in a municipal water supply.

Water from Lake Scranton is filtered and treated before distribution. A comprehensive safety analysis of the treatment process would attempt to eliminate or mitigate potential hazards.

PAWC customers served by Lake Scranton should be aware that gulls from the landfill may impact the quality of their drinking water.

BERNARD STASCAVAGE

SCRANTON

4/14/2015: Health officials will join DEP at landfill open house

From the Times-Tribune:

Officials from federal and state health agencies will join state environmental regulators at an open-house meeting on Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed expansion.

The state Department of Health and Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will host the meeting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, April 27, at Throop Civic Center, 500 Sanderson St.

Residents can speak one-on-one with officials from all three agencies during the session.

4/14/2015: fracking waste study says states arent doing enough to protect public

Horizontal drilling produces both liquid and solid waste streams which can contain heavy metals, dangerous chemicals, salts and radiation. But you will never hear it referred to as toxic or hazardous by anyone, officially.

Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based nonprofit, explains that thirty years ago the EPA exempted oil and gas waste from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

“So right now, oil and gas waste [drill cuttings and fracking fluid], regardless of how toxic it is, can be treated like normal household waste in many parts of the country,” Mall said.

Municipal landfills do accept the waste even though it’s largely uncharacterized.

4/11/2015: Wansacz: My record on out-of-state trash is clear

The commissioner said his record on landfills speaks for itself; yet he continued to decline to discuss directly his position on Keystone’s plan to grow from a permitted disposal area of 335 acres to 435 acres, and increase the height it can pile waste 165 feet to a new pinnacle of 475 feet above ground level.

Mr. Wansacz repeatedly responded to questions seeking his stance on the specific plan to expand the landfill co-owned by influential businessmen Louis and Dominick DeNaples by speaking in generalities.

“I don’t think my position has ever changed,” Mr. Wansacz said. “My position when I was a state representative has always been, and my position now is that I don’t like out-of-state trash. However, with that said, out-of-state trash is a federal issue, and a landfill issue is controlled by the state.”

“I am concerned, probably like everybody is, about the projected height of the mound itself,” Mr. Staback said. “If perhaps t hey decide to cut it down in height, it might be more palatable and sellable to the general public, but you know that is not going to solve the trash problem. The only thing that is going to solve the trash problem in the long range is a rewrite of interstate commerce regulations. Until out-of-state haulers can no longer transport trash from one state to another like they’re doing today, this is always going to be a problem.”

4/4/2015: Civic group contends it has standing in Keystone landfill zoning dispute

4/4/2015: Civic group contends it has standing in Keystone landfill zoning dispute

KYLE WIND, STAFF WRITER
Published: April 4, 2015

DUNMORE — The zoning board should not throw out a challenge to Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s expansion, opponents said in a legal filing this week.

Grass-roots group Friends of Lackawanna and several borough residents contend Keystone’s plan for a new peak 165 feet higher than currently permitted would violate a 50-foot height restriction in Dunmore’s zoning ordinance.

Keystone’s legal team argued the zoning board should dismiss the appeal right out of the gate because neither Friends of Lackawanna nor individual Dunmore residents listed on the challenge have legal standing to raise the objection.

Several lanes of highway stand between the landfill and homes of challengers Joseph and Mari May, Edward and Beverly Mizanty and Katharine and Todd Spanish in the Swinick development, Keystone’s team said in its own filing. Their homes have a different zoning designation than Keystone’s area and are also close to a Waste Management transfer station, attorneys Marc Jonas, Michael Peters and Jeffrey Belardi added.

Because the group’s properties are not immediately adjacent to Keystone, the residents must demonstrate “a direct injury” from the expansion beyond any complaints shared by the general public, Keystone argued. “Aesthetics are … insufficient,” the filing said.

Both sides continue to cite dueling precedents and disagree on which facts are relevant in the case. One of the latest disagreements is how far away the households are.

Keystone described the homes as each more than a half-mile from the expansion area, while Friends of Lackawanna said the May and Mizanty families are within a quarter-mile of the landfill, while the Spanish home is about a half-mile away.

In interviews, Mr. Jonas said Keystone had professional engineers measure the distance, while Friends of Lackawanna attorney Jordan Yeager said the group defined the expansion area differently because existing parts of the landfill would remain active if the expansion were approved.

Regardless, Mr. Yeager did not believe the exact distance matters in the case of such a large-scale expansion proposal, and he argued the residents have standing either way.

The Mays “can already see the landfill from their kitchen window, and that would only worsen with the proposed upward … expansion,” Mr. Yeager said in the new filing. “The Mays (would) face decades more of the landfill’s odors. On hot summer nights when they try to enjoy the pool in their backyard, they are often forced inside due to the horrible smells that come from KSL’s facility.”

The document continued to argue the family has to constantly clean the exterior of their home because of dirt and scavenger-bird droppings.

At last week’s zoning hearing, Mr. Jonas frequently objected to that kind of testimony, saying the residents could not prove those types of issues came from the landfill rather than, for example, the nearby interstates or transfer station.

Letter to the Editor 3/31/2015: Skyscraper of Trash

Well said, Matthew Pendrak! Thank you!


Skyscraper of trash

Editor: I attended the Dunmore zoning board hearing on March 19.

The issue at the hearing was whether expanding Keystone Sanitary Landfill upward by 165 feet would violate the borough’s 50-foot restriction on heights for structures.

Dunmore code enforcement officer Joseph Lorince seems to think that it does not violate the limit. Marc Jonas, an attorney for the landfill, concurs with Mr. Lorince and contends that “it certainly is not a building or a structure.”

Friends of Lackawanna, a group of concerned citizens opposed to the expansion of the landfill, is appealing what it believes to be Mr. Lorince’s erroneous interpretation of the zoning law.

I agree. They now do battle with Mr. Jonas and his team to correctly define that a structure of garbage extending 165 feet upward would indeed be a massive skyscraper of trash.

A prospective witness for Friends of Lackawanna, J. Lawrence Hosmer, came with impressive credentials and 43 years of experience in dealing with landfills. He was, in my view, quickly dismissed with prejudice as an expert on the matter by the zoning board.

Residents of Jefferson Twp. and the surrounding area deserve the best future for our children, along with a safe and sound environment.

A skyscraper of trash shouldn’t be our children’s legacy or our area’s claim to fame.

MATTHEW PENDRAK

JEFFERSON TWP.

FRIENDS OF LACKAWANNA CONTINUES FIGHT AGAINST PROPOSED LANDFILL EXPANSION

The Moscow Villager highlights the efforts of Friends of Lackawanna in this article by Barbara Grace on March 24th.  Pat Clark, core member of
Friends of Lackawanna, emphasizes the positive impact that writing
letters to elected officials and the DEP is making in helping these
efforts.  Please continue to write and have our voices be heard!  
Thanks!

Moscow Villager
Barbara Grace, Correspondent
March 24, 2015

http://www.moscowvillager.com/article/20150324/NEWS/150329910

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: PLEASE REJECT THE APPLICATION OF KEYSTONE SANITARY LANDFILL

Thanks to the Lynett’s, Haggerty’s and their families for taking a stand against the expansion of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill in today’s Times-Tribune!

Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA
Times-Tribune Readers
March 29,2015

The following letter was sent to John H. Quigley, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Dear Mr. Quigley:

Please reject the application of Keystone Sanitary Landfill for its 50-year, 100-million-ton, 450-foot-height expansion in Northeast Pennsylvania.

The risk of approving this planned monstrous structure is simply too great to the air we breathe, the land we live on and the water we drink.

The DeNaples family is responsible for a great deal of public and private charitable giving. But this application and its grave, negative impact on our region could never be justified by those good deeds.

If the DeNaples brothers were willing to stop accepting out-of-state garbage — currently 60 to 65 percent of the landfill’s intake — the projected five-year life of their business would be extended to nearly 15 years. This would provide them with adequate time to create a new landfill in a much more rural setting. This should be feasible because of the extensive land holdings of the DeNaples family in this part of the state.

This expansion and the resulting mountain of mostly out-of-state garbage represents the most serious quality of life issue facing our area since the environmental scars left behind by the anthracite coal barons.

This monstrosity will stand at one of the most important gateways to our Lackawanna Valley. It sits next to and would, in due time, loom over the well-traveled intersection of the Casey Highway and Interstate Routes 380, 84 and 81. This surely is not the way to welcome visitors to our part of the world.

Please consider the basic right to a clean, healthy environment of the nearly 100,000 people who live in numerous neighborhoods surrounding the landfill. We live in these neighborhoods.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

CHRISTOPHER LYNETT DUNMORE

SHEILA AND JAMIE STALLMAN

SCRANTON

JEANIE AND CHRIS MCGRATH

DUNMORE

MAURI AND JOE COLLINS

SCRANTON

KATIE AND BRIAN JAMES

DUNMORE

NOELLE AND BOBBY LYNETT

SCRANTON

CECELIA HAGGERTY DUNMORE

CHRISSY AND MATTHEW HAGGERTY

SCRANTON

WENDY AND JIMMY HAGGERTY

SCRANTON

SHARON LYNETT

SCRANTON

PATTI AND GEORGE LYNETT

SCRANTON

MEGHAN AND DANIEL HAGGERTY

SCRANTON

KATHY AND TIM ROSE

SCRANTON

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor-please-reject-the-application-of-keystone-sanitary-landfill-1.1855105

A view of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill from a home in Olyphant TODAY!  So many people in our area bought their homes when the landfill wasn’t an eyesore and/or when they believed it would close at the end of their existing permit.  This is…

A view of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill from a home in Olyphant TODAY!  So many people in our area bought their homes when the landfill wasn’t
an eyesore and/or when they believed it would close at the end of their
existing permit.  This is why Senator Casey raised the question about
how much garbage one area or one community should reasonably have to
accept before it seriously degrades our quality of life and poses so
many potential risks to our health, safety and welfare.

Friends, one of our members created the attached conceptual Before and After rendering. It is the result of looking at the proposed Keystone Sanitary Landfill Phase 3 expansion plans and using that information to make an informed opinion on what t…

Friends, one of our members created the attached conceptual Before and After rendering. It is the result of looking at the proposed Keystone
Sanitary Landfill Phase 3 expansion plans and using that information to
make an informed opinion on what the landfill will look like from across
the valley when it reaches capacity.  Our constitutional right to to
the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of
the environment will be completely degraded.  This is why we stand in
such strong opposition and continue to defend our community’s health, welfare, reputation, property values and our environment.

DRAMA CONTINUES AT SECOND KEYSTONE LANDFILL ZONING HEARING

TImes-Tribune, Scranton, PA
Kyle Wind, Staff Writer
March 27, 2015

Friends, between the drama outlined in today’s Times-Tribune article, Friends of Lackawanna members took the stand as witnesses and testified as to their concerns regarding how the expansion would effect the enjoyment of their homes (both residences are within a quarter mile of KSL).  They were wonderful!  Our legal team was fantastic and we are being heard on the record.  The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 16th.  Hope to see you there!

Excerpts:
Drama filled a Thursday zoning board hearing on Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed expansion, with questions raised about whether a board member has a conflict of interest and subpoenaed landfill consultants not showing up.

At the outset of the proceeding, the lawyer for anti-expansion group Friends of Lackawanna asked for clarification about whether zoning board member Peter Sabia Jr. has business ties to landfill co-owner Louis DeNaples, but got no specific answers.

Attorney Jordan Yeager presented records showing a man named Peter Sabia is an officer in at least six companies in which Mr. DeNaples is also an officer. In most cases, Mr. Sabia’s address is listed as 400 Mill St., the listed address of DeNaples Auto Parts. The businesses are S&H Drilling, Inc., 215 Corporation, Route 315 Realty, Wallenpaupack Lands, Lakeside Time Shares and C.P.R. & O.

“Do you have any way to identify whether the Peter Sabia appearing on these documents is the Peter Sabia who is a member of this board?” asked zoning solicitor Carl Greco.

Mr. Yeager responded he did not, and that was why he sought clarification about the listing as well as whether any of the companies are either affiliated with or do business with Keystone.

“I recognize that there are two Peter Sabias, that there is a Peter Sabia Sr. and a Peter Sabia Jr.,” Mr. Yeager said, referring to the board member’s father.

Mr. Sabia looked at the documents but did not speak about them. The Times-Tribune has separately been researching the issue, but both at his home on Wednesday and after Thursday’s hearing, the younger Mr. Sabia refused to speak to a reporter about the matter.

Mr. Greco noted at last week’s hearing, each member of the zoning board said they do not have any conflicts prohibited by the state Ethics Act.

Also Thursday, Mr. Yeager had hoped to question landfill consultants Albert Magnotta and David Osborne, who developed the nearly half-century expansion application, about their knowledge of the nature, design and construction of the landfill.

But Mr. Yeager said Keystone’s lawyers communicated the pair would not appear to testify without a court order. Friends of Lackawanna has the option to petition Lackawanna County Court to enforce the zoning board’s subpoena.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/drama-continues-at-second-keystone-landfill-zoning-hearing-1.1854526

PUT NEXT DEP MEETING ON LIVE ECTV SECRETARY’S POINT RAISES HOPE FOR EXPANSION FOES

Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA
Editorial Board
March 26, 2015

We hope the ECTV will help to educate our citizens on the impact of the potential Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion by covering the next DEP public meeting.  We are just at the beginning of understanding its current and future negative impacts.

Excerpt:
John Quigley, acting state secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, has issued some encouraging signals about the Wolf administration’s approach to the proposed massive expansion of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill.

Crucially, he said recently at a legislative hearing that the department will consider the capacity of the Alliance Sanitary Landfill in Taylor to accept regional waste that now goes to Keystone, when it considers the expansion application.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/put-next-dep-meeting-on-live-ectv-secretary-s-point-raises-hope-for-landfill-expansion-foes-1.1853715

BLAKE QUESTIONS DEP SECRETARY JOHN QUIGLEY AT SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING

Thank you, Senator Blake, for asking DEP Secretary John Quigley questions regarding the Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion application at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing today!  This is a great step in the right direction towards ensuring the voice of your constituents is heard!

Great things about this link:
-Senator Blake is bringing up our concerns to the DEP at the State level
-John Quigley agrees to another DEP meeting
-John Quigley says that they do take into consideration that our area has 2 landfills in close proximity to each other
-John Quigley says he is getting letters from all of you every day–you are making a difference!!

Less great things about this link:
-Senator Blake doesn’t agree with the expansion “at this scale”
-John Quigley says he thinks the current regulations are adequate
-John Quigley infers there is still a lot of time left before the decision but a year will go by fast and we are just at the tip of the iceberg learning about the current and potential harms of this landfill

Starts at 3mins and goes to 6:10.

http://www.senatorblake.com/videogallery/senator-blake-questions-dep-secertary-john-quigley-march-25-2015/