Another great article on the front page of the Scranton Times. Please let your lawmakers know where we stand and that we want them to support our opposition to the landfill expansion in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of our region!
DEP: DUNMORE LANDFILL AGREEMENT NOT CONSENT FOR EXPANDING
November 15, 2014
Today’s article says approving a new contract would not be seen as consent for the landfill expansion by the DEP. This would be the case as long as that contract did NOT include the Phase 3 expansion, however, the current proposed agreement does include Phase 3.
The Host Municipality Agreement is weighed heavily in the Harms/Benefit analysis. If the Borough agrees to accept money for Phase 3 then they are saying that Phase 3 is acceptable. The DEP will certainly see that as consent. We want to be clear that Friends of Lackawanna is opposing the inclusion of Phase 3 in the agreement since this is the important distinction.
Also, the article does not mention how this proposed deal is worth less and less with each passing year — to the point that in terms of today’s dollars, the last year of the proposed deal is worth less than what the Borough receives today.
LANDFILL LEACHATE REACHING GROUNDWATER
You must read this important and disturbing article that confirms what many have suspected: we are already compromised and it will only get worse.
From the front page of the Sunday Times, October 12, 2014:
LANDFILL LEACHATE REACHING GROUNDWATER
Excerpts:
"Chemicals from Keystone Sanitary Landfill are contaminating groundwater — a recurring problem for more than a decade that appears to violate state law, a Sunday Times review of state Department of Environmental Protection tests found."
"Mark Szybist, staff attorney for environmental group PennFuture, said any confirmed discharges would surely violate the state’s Clean Streams Law. He found it “problematic” that they don’t show up on eFacts, the DEP’s enforcement tracking tool."
"Leachate is liquid that passes through a landfill, picking up chemicals and dissolved particles from the waste. Some call it “landfill tea.”" [Also known as "garbage juice"]
"Keystone’s leachate contains a wide and ever-changing variety of contaminants, according to documents in its February application to the DEP for permission to expand skyward 220 feet from its current peak. The expansion would extend the life of the landfill by almost 50 years.
In various tests in 2013 and 2014, DEP found acetone, t-Butyl alcohol, tetrachloroethene, toluene, tetrahydrofuran and methyl ethyl ketone in groundwater wells drilled on Keystone property.
Each of these chemicals are industrial solvents, typically found in paint or varnish thinners. Tetrachloroethene is widely used in dry cleaning. In high enough concentrations, they are all toxic to humans, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.”
"The landfill’s 2013 report claims “(volatile organic compounds) remain absent in the well,” despite DEP test results from May 2013 that show acetone and t-Butyl alcohol in that well. Both are considered volatile organic compounds."