- Lower Saucon Planning Commission on Thursday approved preliminary expansion plans for Bethlehem Landfill
- In the meantime, the dump still can seek its Department of Environmental Protection permit, a process that could take years, officials say
- However, a pending lawsuit must be resolved before the dump could submit final plans to Lower Saucon
LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — With a township engineer's review letter in hand, Lower Saucon Planning Commission on Thursday voted to unanimously approve Bethlehem Landfill's Phase Five Expansion plans, along with respective process waivers.
Some of those waivers include access road width and thickness, storm drainage easements, slope angle and more.
Township Engineer Brien Kocher said the waivers are similar to ones requested in previous expansion applications.
The landfill situation as of late
Following a court agreement this month, dump officials still could keep their foot on the gas in applying for land development approval through the township.
The landfill also must get a green light from the state Department of Environmental Protection through a permitting process that could take three to five years, landfill attorney Maryanne Garber has said.
However, final development plans can’t be submitted to the township until the resolution of a lawsuit from opposing residents. If the township approved the final plans and had a DEP permit in hand, only then could the expansion begin.
The township’s Environmental Advisory Council on Oct. 10 voted against recommending the preliminary plans to township council, though at that time officials still were waiting for a review letter from the township engineer.
Most of the panel wanted to get more information before giving an approval.
Lower Saucon zoners on Monday punted the issue of a resident substantive validity challenge to court, opting out of a scheduled hearing that would've addressed concerns over the latest expansion plans.
Public comment
The landfill is planned to expand with 86 acres of new disposal footprint and more than 27 acres of footprint “atop previously permitted lined disposal area,” according to the township engineer’s review letter.
It’ll come with a total disturbance area of 171 acres, with 27 disturbed acres within the existing permitted area.
Township resident Ginger Petrie said her property borders the proposed expansion’s eastern edge, and the landfill has now bought other surrounding properties.
Petrie said area wildlife and streams run to the Lehigh River making for quite a scenic landscape. But the 50-foot earth berm walls set to divide the dump cells as they fill up will significantly change that scenery until the whole side of the mountain is unrecognizable, she said.
“At this point, we’re all assuming this [expansion] is a go. Could you please go to the bottom of the mountain and stand there and think about what it’s going to be, the young people you know, in 30 years from now, when they call it a Superfund and your names were on the OK.”Ginger Petrie, Lower Saucon resident
“At this point, we’re all assuming this [expansion] is a go,” Petrie said. “Could you please go to the bottom of the mountain and stand there and think about what it’s going to be, the young people you know, in 30 years from now, when they call it a Superfund and your names were on the OK.”
Landfill attorney said the expansion would add about 20 years to the dump’s lifespan. And if it were to close, she said landfill officials would have to adhere to DEP-bonded post-closure obligations for 30-plus years.
Resident Lynn Hill said she had problems with the parameters of the expansion’s respective conservation areas.
“There are more holes in these conservation easement documents than you could drive a truck through,” Hill said. “It doesn’t help the wildlife, it doesn’t help the trees and it certainly doesn’t help our view that people are losing with this project.”
Lower Saucon solicitor B. Lincoln Treadwell Jr. said the conservation easements were provided with these plans "for illustrative purposes" but weren't officially separate from the application.
"The conservation easement document was modeled after the standard conservation easement the township uses to preserve any property that we've purchased with open space funding," Treadwell said.
