Re: Keystone Landfill Permit Application for Expansion To Whom It May Concern, In June of 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released grand jury testimony that showed the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to protect public health in relation to non-conventional drilling of natural gas in the commonwealth. In public statements, he expressed disbelief at DEP’s response to the report, a response that sounded more like the industry itself talking and reflected an “attitude” that is “part of the problem that we are facing in Pennsylvania.” The same can be said for the department’s handling of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill and its constant odors, frequent leaks, and other environmental pollution that has gone largely unchecked over the years. It is time for the DEP to change their approach to this environmental polluter by rejecting the company’s proposal to continue piling trash on Dunmore and surrounding communities for the next forty years. The Keystone Sanitary Landfill already poses a great threat to groundwater in the region, so much so that even the company’s Phase 3 permit acknowledges that it is currently leaking into ground water at its present size. The landfill sits just four hundred and fifty feet from the Dunmore Reservoir #1 and the landfill’s preposterous plan allows untreated run-off to flow into Eddy Creek. Worse, the landfill welcomes fracking drill cuttings and drilling mud, which can contain high levels of radioactive radium. Exposure to radium and radioactive materials can contribute to headaches, skin lesions, and even cancer, making groundwater contamination and leaking a serious health risk hazard to the community. In 2019, a court-ordered injunction forced a landfill in Belle Vernon, PA to stop discharging about 100,000 gallons/day of radium-contamination leachate to a municipal wastewater treatment facility that was unequipped to handle it.1 The radium in the leachate was the result of fracking waste disposal at the landfill, and had been discharging directly into the Monongahela River. This landfill is a recipe for disaster even before considering allowing it to grow in size. When you think of how bad the odors from the landfill are now and how far away it can be smelled by residents and passersby, it’s clear that this will only become worse if the landfill is allowed to proceed with its current plans. Richard C. Ready’s article “Do Landfills Always Depress Nearby Property Values?” demonstrates an average property value loss of 13.7% for adjacent properties with a proportional property value loss due to the size of the landfill,
1
Don Hopey & David Templeton, “Judge shuts down waste water pipe from Westmoreland landfill to Belle Vernon sewage plant.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17, 2019.
highlighting the impact to residential property values, something that should be of concern to both residents and public officials alike. The most troubling, however, is the threat to public health and the documented increased risks for birth defects and certain types of cancer for those who live near landfills, including bladder cancer, brain cancer, and leukemia. Even without the proposed expansion, this risk is already present and the DEP should be directing their efforts toward mitigating these impacts to residents and continuing to monitor the landfill as it transitions toward its sunset in the safest way possible. The DEP should not be looking for ways to allow this landfill to amplify its capacity and, therefore, its potential to cause these harms. We support the pursuit of personal, environmental, social, and economic health of Jessup and the surrounding area. Allowing a forty-year expansion of an already gigantic polluting eyesore like the Keystone Sanitary Landfill would not only make those goals nearly impossible, but would be nothing short of a tragic blow to the entire region’s future health and an active disregard for the responsibilities of the agency tasked with environmental protection by the Commonwealth. As such, we stand with the Friends of Lackawanna and all those who have spoken out against this proposal and say NO LANDFILL EXPANSION. Sincerely, Jason Petrochko, President Citizens for a Healthy Jessup P.O. Box 62, Jessup, PA 18434 Jeff Smith, Chair Sierra Club PA Chapter, Lackawanna Committee PO Box 606, Harrisburg, PA 17108