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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Jim Wansacz |
  
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Wansacz expresses disappointment in DEP
over Alliance landfill extension permit
OLD FORGE, July 30 – State Rep. Jim Wansacz today stated that he is extremely disappointed in the decision by Department of Environmental Protection officials to extend the operating permit of the Alliance Sanitary Landfill in Taylor Borough and Ransom Township, Lackawanna County, through Oct. 31, 2010.
He said recent history demonstrates the problems with the landfill:
· On Sept. 12, 2000, a meeting of approximately 1,500 concerned citizens met in the Old Forge High School Auditorium with DEP to express their concerns about the proposed 147-acre expansion for Alliance landfill.
· On May 17, 2001, DEP's northeast regional director, William F. McDonnell, announced that the department had denied a 147-acre expansion permit request submitted by Alliance Sanitary Landfill stating that "the landfill did not document that public benefits associated with the proposed expansion would clearly outweigh environmental and community harms."
· On April 11, 2003, DEP Acting Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty announced that Alliance landfill would be shut down under a consent order and agreement that DEP issued to force the landfill to correct numerous violations and remedy community nuisances. "Enough is enough. Alliance repeatedly and persistently has refused to follow the law -- despite literally hundreds of warnings by DEP personnel. We have a duty to protect public health and to uphold the law. Today, sadly, that means we have to shut down this facility and keep it closed until violations are fixed," McGinty said.
· Upon reopening four weeks later, Alliance voluntarily reduced its daily waste intake and later paid a $520,000 fine for the nuisance violations.
· On May 18, 2006, DEP renewed Alliance Sanitary Landfill’s operating permit with reduced daily volume for the facility. The new permit established an average daily volume limit of 2,000 tons per day through July 31, 2008. The previous permit allowed an average daily volume of 5,000 tons per day. That permit was set to expire July 31, 2006. "This permit significantly reduces the amount of waste that Alliance can receive on a daily basis," said DEP’s northeast regional director, Michael Bedrin. "This lower daily volume in no way diminishes the landfill’s responsibility to ensure compliance with Pennsylvania’s strict waste management regulations."
· On July 29, 2008, DEP once again renewed the operating permit for the Alliance Sanitary Landfill. "Over the past couple of years, Alliance has reduced its waste volumes to 600 to 800 tons per day," Bedrin said.
Wansacz said, "These DEP officials can spin it any way they want, but Waste Management played them like puppets; as far as I’m concerned, DEP put their heads in the sand like ostriches. What happened to DEP’s comments that Alliance Landfill will not be allowed to use the "wheelbarrow" strategy to circumvent reaching the landfill capacity?"
Additionally, Wansacz noted that he is looking out for the future of the area in 2011.
"I may not be a state representative by then, and the people who made this decision at DEP may no longer be working there, but the towns of Old Forge, Taylor, Ransom, Moosic and other surrounding communities will have to live with this disastrous decision made by pro-landfill DEP."
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Rep. Wansacz is available for comment on this issue at jwansacz@pahouse.net.
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CONTACT: Amy Giancoli Hartman |