Thank you, Dunmore Mayor
for your continued leadership. You’ve been in this from the beginning and haven’t backed down once. Your support has been crucial.
Rep Mullins: Letter of Opposition
Thank you,
for recognizing the environmental and heath concerns of your community and being the voice of your constituents!
Rep Cartwright: Letter of Opposition
Our next thank you goes out to Congressman Matt Cartwright. Another elected official that has stood by his constituents and is still standing strong with us five years later. Thank you for opposing the landfill expansion! #enoughisenough #ourtowndeservesbetter
Sen. Casey opposes landfill expansion in letter to DEP
We have many people to thank as we kick off our appreciation posts. A big thanks to
for continuing to stand with his constituents. He was the first elected official to come out against the landfill expansion, and five years later his stance remains the same. Thank you, Senator Casey for standing with us!
Class Action Against Bethlehem Landfill Unearthed on Appeal
We hope you find this as interesting as we do!
LTE: DETRIMENT OBVIOUS
Another excellent letter today in The Scranton Times-Tribune. Excerpt: If this landfill expansion happens, it will have chilling effect on businesses and job opportunities in Lackawanna County for generations to come.
https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/.../article_6348ec74...
DETRIMENT OBVIOUS
Editor: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources’ harms-versus-benefits conclusion regarding Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s expansion plan seems to place a higher value on monetary benefits than the surrounding area’s quality of life.
Consider DEP’s view using money as the primary deciding factor.
A primary purpose of the $450 million Casey Highway development was to open the mid- and upper-valley area to business development. The Scranton-Lackawanna Industrial Building Co. used the highway’s access to create the Valley View Business Park and the Jessup Small Business Center. This involved building roads and installing utilities. The tools were there to create a successful business environment. Developers built prime facilities that would accommodate production, offices or warehousing. But something happened to change the view of investing in the area. Keystone Sanitary Landfill announced its intention to expand for approximately 42 years.
I see 17 vacant or underutilized buildings within a 4-mile radius of the landfill, with an average size of 213,487 square feet. Some are state-of-the-art facilities that normally would have tenants before construction was complete. Why are these potential businesses and the associated jobs not fulfilled in these in prime locations?
As a former business manager located in the shadow of the landfill, I can feel the pain as Realtors or developers take potential clients to sites and drive almost within touching distance of this massive, smelly pile of trash. If you were an investor or business manager would you choose this location? If you managed a business there and the lease was about to expire on your location, would you want to renew that lease?
Several excellent employers have moved into the area but the true potential is not being reached. If this landfill expansion happens, it will have chilling effect on businesses and job opportunities in Lackawanna County for generations to come.
GENE KATAPSKI
MOUNT COBB
LTE - 7/6/2020
Another letter requesting that DEP deny KSL’s expansion. Keep on writing and make sure our voices are heard!
Editor: I sent the following message to Roger Bellas, waste management program manager for the Department of Environmental Protection’s regional office:
“I am writing to voice my hope that the expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill will be denied. I believe every state should have to handle their own disposal needs for refuse. When we can throw out anything we want and it is carted a state away we have little reason to change our disposal habits.
“The Lackawanna Valley has been degraded for a century and a half starting with clear cutting of the forests, fouling of the land, air and water from coal mining, installation of multiple unsightly electric power transmission lines and of course the truck traffic, dust, birds, smell and visual disruption from not one but two local landfills. To me the cost-benefit study that was done by the DEP places the health and welfare of all of our current and future residents on one side of the scale and the interests of a powerful, connected family on the other.
“Are we to believe that an honest accounting of the true costs and benefits of the proposed 40-plus-year expansion of this landfill favors a family dynasty with a poor record of environmental stewardship over the future of an entire region? I respectfully ask that this permit application be denied.”
BOB SHUMAKER
SCRANTON
Op-Ed: Reports detail money's impact on environmental policy
Today's Op-ed by FOL's Pat Clark is on the upcoming DEP decision and the deja vu inducing prioritization of money over all else. As you will read, last month's Grand Jury report echoes, almost exactly, what we have experienced with how the DEP has looked at this landfill expansion proposal.
"By rejecting Keystone’s proposed landfill expansion, DEP has an opportunity to salvage any credibility which this agency may have once enjoyed before it became so marred with a reputation of serving at the behest of industry, the rich and the politically connected. It has one final opportunity to fulfill its constitutional duties and stick up for the people of Northeast Pennsylvania, including generations yet to come."
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Reports detail money's impact on environmental policy
By PATRICK CLARK GUEST COLUMNIST
Studies estimate that approximately two-thirds of people have experienced dèjá vu. Translated, the French term means “already seen” and it is best described as the feeling you get as though you have been somewhere before or have an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something new. It is a common, almost always harmless, experience, except when reading a grand jury report involving the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
In late June, a Pennsylvania grand jury report was made public. It resulted from a two-year investigation centered on the DEP’s oversight of the natural gas fracking industry. If one simply replaced “fracking” with “landfill,” it is eerily similar to a November 2017 ruling by another independent body, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, which evaluated how the DEP regulates Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore and Throop.
Fracking and waste disposal are massive, powerful industries in Pennsylvania. Since fracking’s emergence, Pennsylvania has consistently ranked toward the top of the U.S. “unconventional oil and gas industry.” When it comes to trash, Pennsylvania historically imports more waste than any other state. Strong, environmentally destructive industries require stronger regulatory agencies to protect the public. Though the DEP’s stated mission is to do so, it has failed woefully.
The grand jury fracking report concluded that “...officials did not do enough to properly protect the health, safety and welfare of the thousands of Pennsylvania citizens who were affected by this industry” and that “government institutions often failed in their constitutional duty to act as a trustee and guardian ‘of all the people,’ as Article 1, Section 27 [of the Pennsylvania Constitution] provides” and “We believe some DEP employees saw the job more as serving the industry than the public.”
Oversight lagging
The nearly identical 2017 Environmental Hearing Board Ruling passage found that DEP has not “consistently exercised vigorous oversight of the landfill consistent with its regulatory and constitutional responsibilities with just as much concern about the rights of the landfill’s neighbors as the rights of the landfill.”
Further, the grand jury report found that “DEP employees often elected not to inspect reported violations... And even in cases where investigation did show that a violation had occurred, and that ground water had been tainted... DEP employees chose not notify unsuspecting neighboring landowners, who would have no way of knowing there was a problem.”
The mirror section in the 2017 Environmental Hearing Board: “the biggest deficiency with the Department’s review [of Keystone’s compliance history] was that it relied almost entirely on recorded violations, yet the department almost never records any violations at Keystone, even if they undeniably occurred.”
The parallels do not stop at the nearly identical written conclusions. Both reference an unexplained lack of notice of violations at the offending companies. Both discuss the lack of underlying historical health data. Both reference the location of offending facilities being in close proximity to residential areas, not “out-of-the-way industrial parks.”
Perhaps the most damning similarity comparing Keystone’s expansion proposal and the 2020 grand jury report is, unsurprisingly, the impact of money on environmental decisions.
Revenue was priority
The grand jury report states, “...we believe that our government often ignored the costs to the environment and to the health and safety of the citizens of the commonwealth, in a rush to reap the benefits of this industry.”
In the DEP’s harms-benefits analysis of the proposed landfill expansion, the DEP concluded that there is not a single environmental benefit, only environmental harms. And every “social and economic benefit” is financial in nature. Yet, on balance, the DEP still found that “the identified benefits of the project clearly outweigh the remaining known and potential harms of the project.” Another way to read that is “money outweighs our environment, health and safety.”
Finally, to connect the remaining dots of these intertwined Pennsylvania cash cows, where does some of the toxic waste from the fracking industry the Grand Jury denounces ultimately reside? Buried in the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, of course.
Dèjá vu isn’t typically something to worry about. Except when it is. Except when it involves repeated condemnations by independent arbiters of the agency in charge of protecting both our citizens and our environment. The DEP has not rendered its final decisions on the landfill’s expansion request, but it will do so shortly. By rejecting Keystone’s proposed landfill expansion, DEP has an opportunity to salvage any credibility which this agency may have once enjoyed before it became so marred with a reputation of serving at the behest of industry, the rich and the politically connected. It has one final opportunity to fulfill its constitutional duties and stick up for the people of Northeast Pennsylvania, including generations yet to come.
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Sen. Casey opposes landfill expansion in letter to DEP
We are overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the letters of opposition sent to the DEP this week. Over the coming days, we will be sharing as many of the letters from public officials as we can.
Here's a brief story highlighting Senator Casey's continued anit-expansion stance.
Much more to follow and thank you to everyone who took the time to write.
LTE June 28
Great questions by this writer!
Editor: Often on business calls, when we said we were from Scranton, people would say, “I’ve been to Scranton — that’s the place with all the waste coal piles and all those junk cars.”
That is a main impression people had of Scranton. They would ask, “What’s with all the coal piles and junk cars?”
The culm dumps are gone, but the junk cars remain. Today, visitors may say, “What’s that smell around here?” or, “Is that huge mountain a landfill in the middle of town?”
Why is this still happening? Northeast Pennsylvania is one of the most scenic areas in the country. Why do residents and elected officials allow companies to destroy the countryside? Why does the state allow out-of-state garbage to be dumped in Pennsylvania, especially a major city? Why does the state allow trucks to tear up the roads and scatter garbage all the way to the state line?
I live in Moscow and have driven the Interstate 380/81 corridor since 1974 and see the degradation. I have never seen, in modern times, such a disregard for the environment and the residents who live in the surrounding area.
I have found Keystone Sanitary Landfill owner Louis DeNaples to be very pleasant to deal with — he’s a clever and astute businessman and no one works harder. However, he appears to have little regard as to how his operation affects the environment, the residents and other businesses in the area. I would not trust his company to do the right thing in handling another 50 years of trash, based on what I’ve seen.
In today’s marketplace, if you do not clean up your own mess, or if your business adversely affects residents, the environment or local businesses, somebody should get after you. They should not allow an expansion for another 50 years with out-of-state garbage.
FRANK HUBBARD
MOSCOW
It applies to the Landfill too, not just Fracking
There is, and has been, an systemic failure of oversight at the PA DEP. AG Shapiro's report on Fracking could just as esily been written about KSL.
Thanks, Sam, for the edit to the report.
Dunmore, Mid Valley school directors mull opposition of landfill expansion
Thank you, Mid Valley School Board, for once again voting to send a letter to the DEP in opposition to the landfill expansion and protecting the health of our children. As Pat Clark states in the article, we look forward to the Dunmore School Board doing the same.
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Excerpt:
The Mid Valley School Board will once again send a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection opposing the Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed 42-year expansion.
The Dunmore School Board has yet to decide.
Both boards discussed sending letters of opposition to the DEP during virtual meetings Wednesday night. The DEP is in the final phase of reviews for Keystone’s Phase III expansion. As part of the review, it opened a 60-day window for public comment on May 1. That window closes 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The expansion would allow the landfill — located in Dunmore and Throop — to continue bringing in trash until 2064, amounting to an additional 94,072,940 tons of waste, or 188 billion pounds, according to the landfill’s 42.4-year expansion plans.
Mid Valley
Directors voted 7-2 to join both Scranton and Dunmore councils in sending letters of opposition to the DEP. The board previously voted to do the same more than five years ago.
Dunmore
During the public participation portion of the Dunmore School Board virtual meeting, Superintendent John Marichak summarized two letters sent to the board by borough residents Sharon Cuff and Molly Earley Callahan asking it to oppose the expansion.
Children are especially vulnerable to environmental health issues, Cuff said in her letter.
“The key to protection is prevention, and I ask that you take steps to do just that — take action to prevent the expansion and protect the students in the district,” she wrote.
Solicitor Matthew Dempsey said it’s been the board’s policy and procedure is to leave issues, such as zoning, to Dunmore Borough Council.
However, board member Francis Kranick said he welcomes the chance to sign, and even compose a letter, to see what his fellow board members’ thoughts are on the issue.
Director Jessica LiBassi added, “It’s something we should express our view on.”
The proposed expansion is a contentious issue in the small community, said Director Michael Coleman.
“As far as a school board, do I think we have much power and pull in any decisions that are made? No I don’t,” he said. “But I think it’s important that our voices are somewhat heard and we stand up for the children.”
Pat Clark, a leader of Friends of Lackawanna, said the group respects Mid Valley’s decision and looks forward to the Dunmore School Board opposing the expansion.
“Dunmore School Board Directors are beginning to take action to protect the health of students from the known harms in their district from Keystone Sanitary Landfill,” Clark said in a text.
Chris Kelly: Like Dimock, Keystone expansion is a preventable disaster
Chris Kelly’s powerful article amplifies the tragic realities our area will face if the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Governor Tom Wolf allow this preventable disaster to happen. Write and tell Governor Wolf and the PADEP to deny the expansion: http://www.friendsoflackawanna.org/write-a-letter
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Excerpt:
The proposed expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore and Throop is a preventable disaster in progress. If approved, “Mount Trashmore” will defile and define not just its “host communities,” but all of Northeast Pennsylvania for the next half-century and beyond. It will stain the region as a vast dump unfit for business investment, job creation or family relocation.
Who chooses to move into the shadow of a mountain of trash? No one who can afford to live and raise a family Anywhere Else. What major employer wants to bring jobs to a region whose most visible industry is garbage? None that can invest Anywhere Else.
“If you’re on the fence (about moving here), it doesn’t just knock you off the fence, it makes you run away from the fence,” said Pat Clark, a founding member of the anti-expansion grassroots group Friends of Lackawanna.
And yet the state Department of Environmental “Protection” is weighing whether to consign the families and businesses of our region to being dumped on with mostly out-of-state trash for the next 42-plus years to benefit a single family accustomed to getting the best government money can buy.
“It really is a state permit to pollute,” Pat said. “It’s giving an entity the state-sanctioned right to desecrate your future forever. That’s just not how environmental protection is supposed to work.”
John Cole: Landfill Cartoon
Coletoons - John Cole political cartoons
masterfully ties multiple current events together in a cartoon from this week centered on Keystone Landfill once again trying to play bully ball. Well done, John.
2 LTEs
2 Letter to the Editors on Keystone in today's The Scranton Times-Tribune. Keep sending 'em in (and feel free to send your thoughts to DEP as well...)
https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/.../article_979985f9...
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Editor: The state review of a proposed expansion at Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore and Throop is open for public comment during its technical evaluation.
One concern is about how much waste we generate and what room is left for this landfill. I propose a question that is not a new idea: How can we reduce the waste we produce?
FAWN CONTRERAS
ARCHBALD
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Editor: Thanks to Michele Dempsey for her June 8 letter explaining her opposition to the state Department of Environmental Protection’s rulings concerning the Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion (“Halt landfill plan”).
She also encouraged readers to protest to Roger Belas, the head of the DEP regional office. I sent him the following message:
“I am writing to you as a resident of Scranton for the last 50 years. When my family moved here it was for my husband’s job. At the time, we had a 20-month-old daughter and a 9-month-old son. Our apartment in Scranton was in close proximity to a culm pile. Not being from the area, I didn’t even know that it was coal waste until I asked. Nine months later, our son, at 18 months, had his first asthma attack in a series of serious attacks that still endanger him.
“I vehemently oppose the landfill expansion. I know that the dangers of the landfill expansion are not the same as those of coal waste but they are, even in the report of the DEP, identified as dangerous to our health and safety. I demand that the DEP do its job and protect the citizens of NEPA from yet another environmental danger, one that even they identify as such. They have stated that not having the money that the landfill would generate would be worse. Worse for who?”
DENISE NORDBERG
SCRANTON
MUST-READ letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from Dunmore Council
Dunmore Council and Mayor Tim Burke sent their powerful, MUST-READ letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). One of the main points of the letter: “PADEP’s permitting process is fundamentally broken, leaving struggling towns like Dunmore to negotiate with billion dollar organizations by ourselves." For over 30 years, threats have been KSL's main negotiation tactic if Dunmore opposed them, pushed back or tried to get more money or protection for the community. In the past, their method worked. But today, threats are no longer tolerated. Kudos to the five members of Dunmore Council—Vince Amico, Michael Dempsey, Janet Brier, Beth McDonald Zangardi, Tom Hallinan — who are willing to stand up to the threats and bullying in order to represent the voices of the people who voted them into office to protect our community! Despite voting yes to sending an opposition letter to DEP, we can only infer that Carol Scrimalli and Tom Ehnot refused to sign the letter after contact was made by Keystone Sanitary Landfill.
Editorial: Let them sue
An excellent editorial in today's The Times Tribune. Will the DEP, which is designed to protect the citizens of the State, ignore the elected representatives and bodies who continue to oppose this expansion?
https://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/let-them-sue-1.2638144
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Let them sue
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD / PUBLISHED: JUNE 14, 2020
The Keystone Sanitary Landfill apparently brims not only with millions of tons of out-of-state garbage, but with hubris.
According to Dunmore borough solicitor Michael P. Perry, landfill officials have threatened to sue the government if borough council follows through on its plan to send a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection opposing the company’s massive expansion plan.
Council voted unanimously May 11 to send a letter to the DEP detailing its public health concerns regarding millions of tons of garbage already in the landfill and nearly a hundred million more tons that it would bury over the next 42-plus years.
The landfill covers parts of Dunmore and Throop, but final authority to permit the expansion lies with the state environmental regulator.
Damage from such a massive expansion will not be limited to Dunmore and Throop. The landfill already is a blight on the interchanges of Interstate Routes 81, 380 and 84, offering thousands of daily travelers exactly the wrong image of Lackawanna County and Northeast Pennsylvania.
The DEP itself somehow has failed to detect odors wafting from the landfill into neighborhoods, diminishing the quality of life for many residents. Adding another 90 million-plus tons of garbage to the landfill isn’t going to make it smell any better.
Scranton City Council also voted unanimously in May to send a letter to the DEP opposing the unwarranted expansion.
Formal opposition should not stop there. Every governing body in Lackawanna County, including the county board of commissioners and all 10 school districts, formally should oppose the expansion and advise the DEP of it. All regional members of the General Assembly and Congress also should weigh in against the expansion.
This isn’t simply about technical compliance with the DEP’s standards. That is the bare minimum requirement. The expansion won’t be good for the region even if Keystone or its successor perfectly operates the landfill.
It’s time for all local governments and public officials to make common cause against the further degradation of Northeast Pennsylvania.
Landfill threatens litigation if Dunmore council sends letter opposing expansion
So far, 2020 has been the year of the crazy, unbelievable story. So to balance things out, here's the most predictable headline you'll see this year: The Keystone Landfill threatens to sue the town that hosts it unless the town does exactly what it wants, when it wants, and how it wants. In related news, the Pennsylvania DEP seems fine with KSL's approach. As always.
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https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/.../landfill-threatens...
Landfill threatens litigation if Dunmore council sends letter opposing expansion
BY FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY, STAFF WRITER / PUBLISHED: JUNE 11, 2020
Keystone Sanitary Landfill threatened to sue Dunmore Borough if council sends a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection opposing the landfill’s proposed 42-year expansion plans.
The DEP is in the midst of its final phase of reviews for Keystone’s Phase III expansion.
The expansion would allow the landfill — located in Dunmore and Throop — to continue bringing in trash until 2064, totaling an additional 94,072,940 tons of waste, or 188 billion pounds, according to the landfill’s 42.4-year expansion plans. As part of the final review, which began in April, the DEP opened a 60-day window for public comment that began May 1 and will conclude June 30 at 4 p.m.
Borough council voted, 7-0, to send a letter opposing the expansion during its May 11 meeting and finalized the letter this week, though it has not been sent yet.
During a council meeting Monday, borough solicitor Michael P. Perry discussed the threat of a lawsuit from Keystone.
“Keystone does not want … the borough council to send the letter, so we’ve been discussing that issue with them, with potential litigation threatened by them if we did send the letter based on the prior landfill agreement,” he said.
However, Perry does not believe the litigation would be successful.
“The 2014 (host) agreement … permits the council to make any type of comment they want with regard to the landfill and any expansion of it,” he said at the meeting.
Councilwoman Janet
Brier said the two-page letter, which council still has to sign before sending, addresses the borough’s health concerns over the expansion and how much garbage the landfill has already taken in over the past decade, among other issues.
“We’re in a situation of environmental degradation, and we want to remedy it,” she said.
Council is also copying the letter to officials at the local and state level in hopes of prompting government leaders to comment, she said. Officials include Gov. Tom Wolf, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright and state Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely.
“They need to comment one way or another on this,” she said.
Scranton City Council also unanimously voted last month to send a letter of opposition to the DEP, citing health and environmental concerns.
Throop Borough Council has not sent a letter to the DEP, council President Rich Kucharski said. Council is leaving the decision up to the DEP, he said.
“Essentially, our position was DEP is the entity that either approves or disapproves,” he said.
Attempts to reach landfill officials were unsuccessful.
The public can mail written comments to Roger Bellas, waste management program manager, DEP Northeast Regional Office, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701, or email him at rbellas@pa.gov.
Dunmore Council Votes to Send Letter
On May 11th a motion was made by Dunmore Council and the vote was UNANIMOUS to send a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) stating opposition to the expansion of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill.
During the June 8th Dunmore Council Meeting, Attorney Michael Perry stated that the owners of Keystone Sanitary Landfill THREATENED to sue the Borough if the letter is sent to the DEP.
The motion was made and passed. Let Dunmore Council know that we are with them and that the days of bullying and threats are over! We deserve better than to be a dumping ground for the next 43 years. COVID-19 has shown us how precious and fragile our health is. We must protect it! We are with you, Dunmore Council! Please send the letter in immediately so our voices can be heard!
LTE: Halt landfill plan
In today's Letters to the Editor in The Scranton Times-Tribune, FOL's Michele Dempsey commends Scranton and Dunmore Councils for their anti-expansion support and highlights the paradigm shift happening in NEPA as more and more are demanding better than the status quo. Well done Michele!
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Halt landfill plan
Editor: As a founding member of Friends of Lackawanna, I commend members of Scranton City Council for their excellent letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in strong opposition to the proposed expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill.
I also commend members of Dunmore Borough Council for unanimously voting during their May 11 meeting to send a letter to the DEP opposing the expansion. This is a positive sign of the paradigm shift happening in this area as we look toward a brighter, healthier future and believe we can be a successful, thriving community that deserves better.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us how precious and fragile our health is. We must protect it at all costs. Friends of Lackawanna has proven that the landfill poses a threat to the health and safety of our community. If the expansion happens, we will not have to quarantine ourselves because citizens will simply leave or not move here.
Unfortunately, action by DEP officials flew in the face of common sense last July when they claimed the benefits of the landfill — money — outweighs the harms — our health and safety. They gave the landfill a pass on its environmental assessment. Now, DEP officials are doing the technical review to determine if the massive landfill structure is technically sound because there are extreme dangers to the area if anything goes wrong.
If they pass, an additional 188 billion pounds of waste, mostly from New York and New Jersey, will be dumped in our community, compromising our health and safety irreparably.
Citizens can be a hero to our community and voice opposition to this threat to our future by submitting comments to Roger Bellas, DEP Northeast Regional Office, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701, or email him at rbellas@pa.gov by June 30 at 4 p.m.
MICHELE DEMPSEY
SCRANTON