EASTON, Pa. — A Northampton County judge on Wednesday denied a request by Lower Saucon Township residents for a stay of a Feb. 27 meeting regarding a controversial expansion of Bethlehem Landfill.
Judge Edward D. Reibman said he was “not satisfied I have the authority” to grant the stay.
- A Northampton County judge denied a request by Lower Saucon Township resident for a stay of a upcoming meeting regarding the proposed expansion of the Bethlehem Landfill
- Judge Edward D. Reibman decided he didn't have the authority to grant the stay
- The proposed landfill site currently has 275 acres of woodlands
“I’m disappointed, but not surprised,” said attorney Gary Asteak of Easton, who represents the residents.
Consequently, Asteak said the meeting at Lower Saucon Township Town Hall will go on at 9 a.m. Feb. 27.
"They’re going to start presenting expert witnesses as to why the landfill should be expanded," Asteak said. "At 7 o’clock that night, we’re going to start presenting evidence as to why the township should have never approved the ordinance.
"We wanted a stay to give us more time to get expert witnesses,” he said.
Many of the 150 residents involved in the effort to prevent the landfill expansion onto 275 acres of forested land attended Wednesday’s hearing.
Their concerns range from land preservation, contaminants from the landfill polluting the water table and existing waterways, repulsive odors emanating from the site, and increased traffic by trash hauling trucks.
Sean Hartnett, who resides about three miles from the current landfill and is within a mile of the proposed expansion site, shook his head after the judge’s ruling.
“We don’t want that landfill expansion. It just attacks the five senses. We don’t want to smell it, don’t want to see it. None of the people who want this don’t live anywhere near it."Sean Hartnett, Lower Saucon Township resident
“And what’s the hurry, that they can’t delay the meeting later this month?" Harnett said. "The current landfill has six more years of available usage. If they push it through, there’ll be 30 years of additional dumping.
"They’re just trying to push it through.”
The proposed landfill expansion site is covered by conservation easements, originally filed with the city of Bethlehem, and transferred to Lower Saucon Township.
It’s currently forested area, with a stream running through it, which has attracted attention from groups like the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.
The residents also are opposed to a zoning change requested by Bethlehem Landfill’s parent company, Waste Connections, of The Woodlands, Texas, to let it expand the landfill.
The adopted changes help clear the way for the landfill’s expansion by rezoning 275 acres for light industrial use, moving decision-making power from the zoning hearing board to the township council, removing many site planning requirements, and creating an exemption to the land preservation requirements.
Two council members who voted to approve the change in December won their elections with the help of spending from a PAC funded by the landfill.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Asteak said he has identified “several fundamental flaws” in the legal notices given to the local newspaper, The Express Times of Easton, and also sent to Lisa Mann, law librarian for Northampton County, for public inspection.
“The legal notice didn’t properly ID what property was being rezoned,” Asteak told the court. “It said 250-some acres was being rezoned for conditional use, but it didn’t say where. And they never attached a map to the ordinance. People didn’t know exactly what was being rezoned where.
“And the full ordinance was not available for public inspection in the law library. No maps were in the ordinance that was filed.
“Our argument is simply a paper argument: the failure to provide proper notice. If the ad procedure was flawed, then the ordinance is void. When you at it all up, there’s something there that doesn’t ring right.”
Mann was cross examined by Mary Ann Garber, counsel for the landfill. Garber showed Mann emails sent to her, with attachments of maps indicating the proposed landfill expansion site.
While Mann acknowledged the email address was hers, she said she never received those emails.
“Any kind of delay [of the Feb. 27] meetings financially impacts my client and the township,” Garber told the court. ”For Mr. Asteak to say there would be no financial impact if there’s a stay is not correct.”
Lower Saucon Township solicitor B. Lincoln Treadwell told the court the township also would suffer financially by delays relative to a stay.
Reporter Ryan Gaylor contributed to this story.
