On November 6, the Department of Environmental Protection announced it has reached a Consent Order and Agreement with Grand Central Sanitary Landfill in Northampton County for violations related to odor and nuisance minimization controls at its facility in Plainfield Township.
In lieu of paying a $50,500 civil penalty, the agreement calls for Grand Central to provide landfill space for approximately 1,000 tons of waste that was dumped illegally, by another party, on private property in the Lehigh Valley.
“This agreement was structured so Grand Central can be held accountable for these violations and so that the community can also benefit” said Mike Bedrin, Director of DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre. “First and foremost, the landfill is required to make adjustments to its nuisance minimization plan, including odor control to address its violations, and second, an illegal dumping site in the Lehigh Valley will be cleaned-up.”
The violations at Grand Central were discovered during inspections over several days in October and November in 2018. The inspections documented violations with odor control, landfill cover and other requirements of the landfill’s nuisance minimization plan, among other violations.
A Notice of Violation was sent to Grand Central Sanitary Landfill on November 30, 2018, and the landfill has since addressed the issues to the department’s satisfaction.
The agreement to provide landfill space for waste from the illegal dump site is part of a Community Environmental Project that the department had been discussing with Grand Central.
In 2017, Michael Stine of Northampton County, admitted to dumping construction and demolition debris two years earlier at a site in Freemansburg, Northampton County. Stine, having been prosecuted by the State Attorney General’s Office, has failed to remove the debris.
The amount of landfill space Grand Central has agreed to provide for proper disposal of the illegally dumped waste is equivalent to the monetary amount of the civil penalty. The property owner has agreed to absorb the costs of transporting the debris to the landfill to maximize the volume to be disposed.
As per the agreement, Grand Central Sanitary Landfill has one year to complete the project.
Media questions should be directed to Colleen Connolly, DEP Northeast Regional Office, 570-826-2035 or send email to: coconnolly@pa.gov.
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[Posted: November 6, 2020] PA Environment Digest
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