OUTATIME

Chris Kelly brings it home once again in his column, Kelly’s World, with his outstanding coverage and analysis of the Dunmore Council meeting that took place on Thursday night.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Excerpt:
The borough’s relationship with Keystone can fairly be called abusive. The guarantee-free 1999 agreement that spawned the landfill’s previous expansion is a travesty. If the state didn’t mandate a minimum host fee of 41 cents per ton of garbage dumped, Keystone could legally pay Dunmore nothing. This immoral agreement remains in effect today.

 

ALLIANCE COULD ACCEPT KEYSTONES SHARE OF LOCAL GARBAGE

Friends, there is so much well-reported coverage of the KSL expansion in the Times-Tribune today.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Excerpt:
Patrick Clark, another core Friends of Lackawanna member, said Keystone only seeks a large expansion to take out-of-state and gas industry waste, he said.

“Neither of those results are in the best interests of anyone that lives in this area,” he said. “Unless, of course, you own a landfill.”

 

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.

 

DUNMORE COUNCIL TABLES DECISION ON LANDFILL PROPOSAL

Thank you to all who came out to stand and be heard!  It made a difference  once again!

Excerpt:

Times-Tribune
KYLE WIND, STAFF WRITER
Published: November 14, 2014

“In the application Keystone is going to present to DEP, Exhibit A is going to be this agreement,” attorney Mark Perry told borough council, in part referring to no expiration date for the deal. “If you don’t want (the expansion), then the choice is clear. Don’t vote for this.”

The contract would increase the fee to $1.20 per ton this year, then annually add 10 cents per ton until the total increases to $1.50 in December 2017.

The idea is to then add a penny per ton per year for the remaining life of the landfill, but Mr. Clark pointed to a potential interpretation of the wording that the fee could drop to 42 cents per ton in 2018 with $1.50 not clearly defined as the base amount at that point.

 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WEIGH ASKING LANDFILL FOR HOST FEE

Excerpts:

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

As the Keystone Sanitary Landfill seeks to expand its facility, Lackawanna County commissioners might try to get a piece of the pie from the operation.

Currently, the county doesn’t get a direct fee per ton of waste as host municipalities Dunmore and Throop do. However, host fees for counties are not uncommon in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s northeast region, said agency spokeswoman Colleen Connolly. Over the last eight to 10 years, area counties that have fees typically get $2 to $4 per ton, she said.

Schuylkill County gets $3 per ton from Commonwealth Environmental Systems — which, like Keystone, is owned by Louis and Dominick DeNaples. The fee was already in place when the brothers took over the landfill, said landfill consultant Albert Magnotta.

Schuylkill County also is allowed to dispose of waste at its landfill for free, while Lackawanna County paid haulers at least $100,000 for waste disposal last year.


 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

November 3, 2014

A fantastic letter to the editor in the Times Tribune today by Katherine Mackrell Oven!

Excerpts:

Editor: In an Oct. 19 op-ed article, Albert Magnotta tries to make a case for the benefits of the proposed Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion.

Mr. Magnotta quantifies the estimated financial benefits to the state and regional economy as $3 billion over 50 years. However, he neglects to quantify the potential damage to property values due to the fact that no one will look to purchase homes in Dunmore, given that the landfill’s new height will be higher than five Bank Towers buildings.

Has anyone taken into consideration the health care costs that may be associated with a plethora of illness potentially linked to living in close proximity to a landfill?

There are vast expanses of undeveloped, unpopulated areas throughout Pennsylvania far more suitable for this mountain of garbage.

So when Mr. Magnotta says the harms are minimal, I disagree.

People of our area deserve the opportunity to live and raise our families in a safe and healthy environment.

 

BE A HERO AND DONATE TO PROTECT YOUR COMMUNITY

If you read the article in today’s Times Tribune and want to help protect our community, please contribute or donate (it can be anonymous) one of the following ways:

For online donations that can be anonymous:
https://www.crowdrise.com/friendsoflackawanna/fundraiser/friendsoflackawanna1

Also, checks can be made payable to Friends of Lackawanna and sent to the following:

Friends of Lackawanna
201 South Blakely St., PMB #305
Dunmore, PA 18512

You can also send checks directly to our environmental attorney at the following (made payable to Curtin & Heefner LLP with Friends of Lackawanna in the memo):

Curtin & Heefner LLP
c/o Jordan Yeager, Esq.
2005 South Easton Rd., Suite 100
Doylestown, PA 18901

KEYSTONE LANDFILL EXPANSION FACING ORGANIZED OPPOSITION

November 3. 2014

Today’s article in the Times Tribune highlights Friends of Lackawanna. We requested no photos for the article since Friends of Lackawanna is about a large group of concerned citizens opposing the landfill expansion. They took the photos in the paper from their archives and the wrong person is pictured as Katherine Mackrell Oven, who is quoted in the article.

Excerpt:
Concerned about the environment and public health, a growing number of area residents are organizing to fight Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s proposed expansion in Dunmore and Throop.

The group formed an organization called Friends of Lackawanna. It has around a dozen core members, nearly 850 Facebook followers and has packed Dunmore Community Center with concerned citizens at recent borough council meetings.

 

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DUNMORE

Many thanks to Chris Kelly from the Times-Tribune for standing up, being counted and giving Friends of Lackawanna a voice in his poignant Editorial today. He describes Friends of Lackawanna as “a new generation of leaders with fresh ideas and the talent and tenacity to translate them into action.”

Excerpt:

Times-Tribune
CHRIS KELLY, KELLY’S WORLD
Published: November 2, 2014

"Stand and be counted or sit it out and be dumped on forever."

We will continue to stand and be counted.