DUNMORE ASKS TO WITHDRAW SUPPORT OF KEYSTONE PROJECT

Another fantastic step in the right direction to protect the health, safety, home values and image of our area.  Friends, we are making a difference one important step at a time.

Excerpt:

Times-Tribune
KYLE WIND, STAFF WRITER
Published: October 28,2014

More than nine months after Borough Council expressed support for Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed expansion, Dunmore’s elected representatives are withdrawing the sentiment.

“Please let this letter serve as formal notice that Dunmore borough would like to reserve the right to contest the Phase 3 application for Keystone Sanitary Landfill,” reads a letter council unanimously approved on Monday.

The letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection also asks the agency to strike from the record a previous communication stating the group did not intend to object to the application.

KEYSTONE LANDFILL OPPONENTS HOPING ZONING LAW CAN STOP LANDFILL EXPANSION

Times-Tribune
KYLE WIND, STAFF WRITER
Published: October 25, 2014

Excerpts:
Plans to expand Keystone Sanitary Landfill may violate the borough’s zoning law that restricts the height of structures, opponents of the expansion say.

Answering the complicated legal question of how the zoning law would relate to the landfill starts with a simple query: Is the landfill a structure?

The answer is important because Dunmore’s 2000 zoning ordinance limits the height of buildings and structures in M-1 zones — in which the Keystone resides on the Dunmore side of the landfill — to 50 feet.

Dunmore’s zoning handbook defines a structure as: “Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires location on the ground or attachment to something having a fixed location on the ground.” It goes on to list examples like buildings, mobile homes, swimming pools, carports, walls, fences and billboards.

“I think you would find a legitimate debate as to whether it is a structure under the zoning laws,” landfill consultant Albert Magnotta said.

Dunmore resident Pat Clark, a licensed attorney who is concerned about the expansion, argued Keystone is indeed a structure and cited a Commonwealth Court ruling from January that found a similar height restriction in Liberty Twp. applied to a proposed 99.27-acre landfill site in Mercer County.

The decision “may be cited for its persuasive value but not as a binding precedent,” according to the written opinion.

From Mr. Clark’s perspective, Keystone is not naturally-occurring but is manmade, and therefore is a structure.

LANDFILL ANALYSIS PITS MONEY VS. INTANGIBLES

Excellent rebuttal to the Harms/Benefit Analysis by Pat Clark in the Times-Tribune today.

Excerpt:

Pat Clark, a Dunmore resident and co- founder of online recruiting software company Hyrell, has been following the expansion closely, going through the harms-benefits analysis and making notes.

“I think the whole process is largely a sham,” he said.

The core of the problem is that the landfill lists benefits with a dollar amount, while harms are not quantified, he said.

“Not one harm has a dollar amount on it other than the cost to repave the road that the dump trucks are going to use to get into the landfill,” he said, though he acknowledged it would be difficult to place a dollar value on something like an unobstructed view of the mountains.

Plus, some of those benefits — payroll, taxes and expenses — are also part of the cost of doing business, he said, and shouldn’t be considered.

“Those are mandatory things you have to do as a business to make more money,” he said.

LANDFILL CONSULTANT WEIGHS IN ON HARMS/BENEFIT ANALYSIS & UNSURPRISINGLY OMITS HARMS

An editorial by the landfill’s consultant is in the paper today. Once again, we are being told that we can’t possibly live without the landfill and we would be lost without their monetary “benefits”, which the consultant quantifies over 50 years. There are several glaring omissions to this article and to the Harms/Benefit analysis, including the the fact that the landfill is leaking and already contaminating our groundwater. Another glaring omission includes quantifying the harms over the next 50 years. What is that number? And what are the unquantifiable harms (i.e. people not moving to Dunmore/Throop/our area and the impact on taxes and businesses)? Members of Friends of Lackawanna have read through the Harms/Benefit analysis from the Phase 3 permit application in depth and will be sharing our feedback very soon. In the mean time, please message if you would like a copy of the Harms/Benefit analysis from the permit application.

RUNNING OUT OF SPACE?

The landfill consultant is now saying that the landfill will run out of space in about 5 years and transporting trash out of the area will be expensive for taxpayers. However, the short-term financial challenges mentioned by the consultant would be absolutely dwarfed by the long term negative financial, health and environmental impacts on our community if the expansion is allowed—the Sunday Times reported our groundwater is already compromised. Our property values, our environment and the health of our community depend on stopping the expansion.

As Katherine Oven says in the article, “The financial and logistical problems of waste disposal is not a valid reason to continue sending trash to Dunmore and Throop for nearly another half-century.” And Tim Burke “feared the figure was “a scare tactic” to move the application along.”

 

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

"Home is where the heart is."

There is something reprehensible- violating our fundamental sense of justice and human decency- when a small group of obscenely wealthy individuals plot to degrade a community and its land, water, and air leaving the homes of good, hardworking people valueless and unlivable.

Thousands of families surrounding the mountain of trash site have poured heart and soul into “home.” They are raising children, enjoying retirement, earning a living, caring for their neighbors, growing gardens, loving the peace and beauty of our valley. For many, “home” is their biggest investment. For others, property is their only asset. Nobody has the right to continue to take that away.

The Keystone Sanitary Landfill is in the middle of our thriving residential communities. Don’t let them take away the value of our homes and destroy the image of our area.

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."