Do you live along or in close proximity to the path of the Green Ridge Sewer Line? If you are not sure, a map from the 1989 Scranton Times is attached. We are working on getting a map of the path of the Roaring Brook Trunk Line. We know it goes through Dunmore’s Sport Hill and Bunker Hill neighborhoods, then Scranton’s Hill Section. If you live along or near these lines, you should pay close attention to the issue that caused the evacuation of Sleep Inn and St. Joe's last week in Dunmore.
Today's Letter to the Editor by Richard J. Yost is a crisp reminder to our elected officials that KSL has the money, but we have the votes.
Excerpt:
That is part of the old reality. The new reality is the one that overcame Majority Commissioner Jim Wansacz in the May primary election. He wasn’t willing to stand up and be counted on the landfill expansion proposal because he had “been dealing with 8 million other issues.”
Those campaigning for public office in the future need to beware; one operates at a risk if he doesn’t acknowledge this new reality. Yes, the new reality is against a Keystone landfill expansion. And yes, Friends of Lackawanna, you may use that statement as a slogan on your next batch of T-shirts, if you desire.
Friends, due to the extremely close relationships and powerful influence in Dunmore, it is not surprising the Zoning Hearing Board has ruled in favor of KSL, however, we are confident we have the law and facts in our side and we will take this to the next level. We are very optimistic and we would not have appealed this if we weren't confident we will ultimately win it.
In the mean time. It should be noted that this same Board believes the residents of this community don't even have a right to stand up and ask that their zoning ordinance be enforced! Basically, they just threw the us under the bus! That is preposterous!
Also, it is concerning they think that there is no limit to the height of a structure unless it has a roof. Share with us the things you might build in Dunmore as high as your heart desires!
http://m.thetimes-tribune.com/news/keystone-landfill-wins-zoning-challenge-friends-of-lackawanna-will-appeal-1.1950037?pp_u=hv31owtT9nrBmDdpzYADgF
From the story:
“Truly, unfortunately due to some of the close relationships and the influence in Dunmore, this result isn't surprising and we are confident that the law and the facts are on our side,” said Michelle Dempsey, one of the founders of Friends (of Lackawanna).
“The residents of this community don't even have a right to stand up and ask that their zoning ordinance be enforced so they really just threw the residents under the bus,” said Jordan Yeager, the attorney representing Friends (of Lackawanna).
FOL core member, Michele Dempsey, speaks with Steve Corbett about the landfill leachate discharge and putrid smells that led to the evacuation of St. Joe's and Sleep Inn.
Friends, we are hearing horrifying stories about how bad the leachate smells along the sewer line in Green Ridge have been for years. (A picture of what leachate looks like is attached to this post.)
If you are currently experiencing odor issues, have had problems in the past with malodors causing burning in your eyes, throat, or nostrils, have recurrent headaches or any other concerns that you feel may be related to your environment there is a DEP Complaint form on this website.http://www.friendsoflackawanna.org/
Our government agencies can only help if they are made aware of problems. Send them any concerns you have, big or small, and let them determine if it's environmentally related. That's their job.
You can also contact Lora Werner from ATSDR/CDC Division of Community Health Investigations at Werner.lora@epa.gov or 215-814-3141
Regardless of anyone's religious beliefs or lack thereof, it is still encouraging to see a leader with global recognition like the Pope bringing attention to the environment. In today's Times-Tribune, the editorial staff points out, as the Pope did, that most areas that are environmentally degraded are poor areas. In fact, Dunmore is an Environmental Justice Area because of the level of poverty. We are watching environmental injustice play out before our eyes and we refuse to watch any longer! We can't let places like St. Joe's, where the most fragile among us reside, be evacuated due to putrid smells from leachate and air that had measurable VOC's (most of which are cancer causing carcinogens). Friends of Lackawanna is here to give us all a place to raise our voices, protect our community, and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Let your legislators know that your vote will be with those who are against the KSL expansion.
http://www.friendsoflackawanna.org/take-action/
Excerpt: The quest for environmental justice is indeed one of the great challenges of the modern era...Around the world, environmental degradation tends to be centered in poor areas.
This is Community Action. Spending your Friday night stuffing tote bags with a bunch of people who are actively trying to protect the future of this region. And my goodness, it is rewarding. If you want to get involved, let us know. If you prefer to stay behind the scenes but believe in our mission, donate. If you simply don't care, well, we suspect you aren't seeing this post anyway... #enoughisenough
Putrid leachate from KSL is running through our neighborhoods (apparently for decades) and emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The Sleep Inn and St. Joe's have to be evacuated the smell is so bad. The patients at St. Joe's are medically fragile and some have respiratory issues. This is outrageous! We cannot allow KSL to expand. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Sources say KSL admits to running leachate through the Green Ridge line last night. Initial air samples show VOCs and chemical exposure is linked to cancers, including bladder cancer. People in the Green Ridge neighborhood have smelled leachate for decades. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!
An eye-opening blog from a NEPA native. He obviously loves this area and the beauty of our natural environment, but he is clear he will not come back to a place that continues to degrade the environment and dump on itself. How many more people won't move back here or move here at all? It is tough to measure that "intangible", but this blog shows it is a real issue. We admire the efforts of CFHJ. Like them, FOL exists to protect our area. We want people to stay here, move here or move back here. We love it here and it saddens and maddens us to see our area its residents being treated like second class citizens. Enough is enough!
FOL parents! Here is a great way to divert waste from landfills!
Excerpt:
Kids are going to use markers. SOOOO many markers.
Many many hundreds of millions of markers are made and sold every year.
Hats off to Crayola though, because they'll actually take them back.
ANY markers (not just theirs).
AND pay for shipping.
The Scranton-Wilkes Barre metropolitan area ranks 8th on Forbes list of Best Cities for Raising a Family. We agree! So many members of FOL moved back to this area to raise our kids because we loved growing up here. We are fighting to protect our area so that we move up this list, not down. The future is in our hands. The beauty of our valley and our natural resources are part of the attraction of our region. There has been enough damage with two landfills, power lines, and junk yards. Enough is enough! We have done our fair share for society. Dont' dump our future! Let's aim to be 1st on this list!
http://www2.forbes.com/business/the-best-cities-for-raising-a-family/
Great insights, Richard Yost!
Landfill interests
Editor: I see several interest groups involved in the controversy over the proposed Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion.
The first is represented by landfill owner Louis DeNaples. His is an exclusive group described as, “My family’s business.”
A second is Friends of Lackawanna, which is interested in a future of environmental health — a life-enhancing ecology with clean air, soil and water.
The third faction is the news media, led to some extent by the editorials and columns in The Times-Tribune. They have been undergirded by a remarkable open letter from members of the publishing families in The Sunday Times of March 29 to John H. Quigley, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The letter recommends the rejection of “a 50-year, 100 million-ton, 450 foot-height expansion in Northeast Pennsylvania.”
Another group is the politicians. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Lackawanna County Commissioner Pat O’Malley have come out strongly against expansion. On the opposite side are State Rep. Marty Flynn D-113, Scranton, and U.S. Rep. Tom Marino R-10, Lycoming County. Flynn exults in a “state-of-the-art” operation; Marino’s silence on the issue has been deafening, but his loyalties always have been suspect.
In the middle are elected officials who, in different ways, say that people “don’t understand the reality” of the situation. The reality they suggest is political reality and I think they are wrong. County Commissioner Jim Wansacz probably got tossed in the primary election for not standing up and that is the new reality. I include in that category state Sen. John Blake D-22, Archbald, and U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright D-17, Moosic, who have tried to massage the issue.
The last and largest faction is the population at large. People near and far look on this landfill and see a growing mountain that takes almost two-thirds of its trash from outside states.
RICHARD J. YOST
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP.
http://m.thetimes-tribune.com/…/letters-to-the-editor-8-19-…
Thank you, Senator Casey! The Trash Act kick-starts rethinking the way we legislate trash in Pennsylvania and across the U.S. We hope this Act will provide an impetus for change in Pennsylvania's waste regulations, providing for stronger, forward-thinking waste reduction and recycling measures that other states will want to emulate or will have to emulate if they want to dump their trash here.
Excerpts:
State governments would gain new powers to restrict incoming garbage from outside their borders and charge a premium for accepting out-of-state trash under legislation U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is proposing.
The Pennsylvania Democrat planned to introduce today the TRASH Act — an acronym for Trash Reduction and Sensible Handling — that would allow states to require incoming waste meet their standards for disposal and charge “community benefit fees.”
“I don’t believe Northeast Pennsylvania should be a dumping ground for the rest of the country.” Mr. Casey said. “I just think that’s asking too much of our people. They’ve already paid, I believe, a disproportionate price.”
Michele Dempsey, a leader in the Friends of Lackawanna group opposed to Keystone’s expansion, hoped the senator’s proposal would kick-start changes in laws in Pennsylvania and across the country.
“Higher standards in Pennsylvania for waste handling and higher fees would serve to slow down the influx of trash we accept from out of state, for whom we have become a less expensive, more convenient garbage can,” she said.
http://thetimes-tribune.com/…/sen-casey-proposes-new-inters…
Richard Yost is spot on in his Letter to the Editor. The young people who have returned to this area and started businesses and families are fighting hard to protect its future. They are the people you will lose or who will not return if the expansion happens. How do you measure that in terms of economic development? Friends of Lackawanna made history by being the first community group to write a Harms-Benefit Analysis to challenge the landfill. If the DEP wants to stop this expansion, they have the information they need to do it. The question is: Are they willing to?
Genuine disgust
Editor: Some people “in the know” believe that Louis DeNaples will get his 50-year expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill. If that is so, how dispiriting it is.
And it will be legal. Ancient laws, along with a sodden bureaucracy, may guarantee it. In addition, most of our current crop of politicians won’t oppose it.
As to DeNaples, he has long since given himself over to disregard for the will of the people. On the other side of this critical issue stands a superlative community organization — Friends of Lackawanna. From the membership of the group and its sympathizers come those who have returned to the area so that their children and their grandchildren can have the same glorious experience of growing up here. Caring neighborhoods meant frequent gatherings in homes and churches, along with ethnic celebrations in parks, plus sports and concerts, crafts exhibits and antique automobile shows.
Amidst the present conflict, much of that still remains. It forms the heart of “scrappy Scranton.” Next year marks the city’s 150th anniversary.
But what if the positives are occluded or overwhelmed by selfish interests? Many people, including some of our most passionate citizens, won’t stay around just to pay homage to an earlier era. They want and need a tangible reason for hope.
The disgust we feel is genuine. Our fate has been tied to DeNaples’ fortunes for too long.
RICHARD J. YOST
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP.
If our local politicians (with few brave exceptions) had half Chris Kelly's courage, the rampant misuse of power, money and influence would not be allowed to fester in this area. Chris is saying what everyone is thinking or is afraid to say. Fear and complacency is why the path of citizens to protect their health, environment and homes has been so difficult. What do you do when the agency that is going to make the decision on a landfill expansion that a 5 year old can tell you is wrong and should not happen, is turning its back on the serious offenses committed by its owner, such as those that have been revealed in the Times Tribune, until the white hot spotlight is put on them? And even then its a gentle slap on the wrist. Is it possible that the DEP would not deny the permit for fear of exposing their own complacency? We hope not. We also hope that the people of this area and, especially, our ELECTED politicians have the courage to speak out and do what is right. Stop letting our area get dumped on out of fear, or worse, because you stand to personally gain while the rest of us lose. #Don'tDumpOurFuture
Excerpts:
Note to television “news” outlets who brag about their “investigative journalists”: If a potential threat to the drinking water of 160,000 people doesn’t draw your interest, maybe you should stop running gritty ads about how tough you are between spots for Mount Airy Casino and Resort. Staring stone-faced and backlit in red is no substitute for real reporting.
What we know for sure is that the Roaring Brook property was not zoned for a trucking business. Mr.DeNaples used it for a trucking business. Those who profess to wonder why average, unconnected people in this region don’t trust elected officials and regulatory agencies and believe the game is rigged against them need only look at this fiasco to understand why.
In today's Times-Tribune column, Kelly's World, Chris Kelly states, "Real-life minions are a clear and present danger to real people." Our drinking water could be poisoned due to the intentional ignorance of municipal leadership, government agencies and politicians. It is this kind of complacency that has made our efforts to stop the landfill expansion exceptionally difficult. We know there are so many people out there who agree with our efforts, but won't or feel they can't get involved. Help break the status quo with us.
Contact the DEP and your local politicians and demand answers to the following questions that have been posed in the media:
* Why did the township allow a public road to be made private?
* Who permitted the bridge over a stream that leads to our primary reservoir for drinking water?
* Who inspected the tankers?
* Where did they draw water from (Lake Scranton or a tributary)?
* Were they paying taxes on this illegal operation?
* Shouldn't the DEP be investigating this?
* Should law enforcement be investigating this and if the tankers crossed state lines can the FBI start a probe?
* What was in the tankers and where was it dumped?
* Why were they not cited?
Another eye-opening column by the Times-Tribune Editorial Board. There is a massive illegal trucking operation associated with hauling dangerous fracking waste upstream from our drinking water supply and the township looked the other way!! You, your children and your families drink this water. We have the power to stop this! Raise your voices. Protect your families. Enough is enough!
Excerpt:
Roaring Brook Twp. is zoned, at least on paper. But, apparently, there is no zoning unless someone complains.
Incredibly, as reported Sunday by Jim Lockwood of The Times-Tribune, township zoning officer Paul Kozik and the township supervisors looked the other way for years as a trucking operation took root and grew in a conservation zone upstream from Lake Scranton — a reservoir responsible for the drinking water of about 160,000 people.
The site, clearly visible on Google maps, is owned by a company of which Dunmore businessman Louis DeNaples is president. According to Mr. Kozik, the trucking operation has something to do with the natural gas drilling industry. It includes a garage, a pond and space for many trucks.
