Plainfield Twp., Pa., Nov. 4, 2020 - Waste Management’s Grand Central Landfill will support the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) cleanup of an illegal dumpsite in Bethlehem Twp. and Freemansburg, Northampton County, through the department’s Community Environmental Project (CEP) initiative.
DEP has been working to clear illegally dumped construction and demolition debris from the Michael Stine/MS Recycling Construction and Demolition waste pile on the Barnsdale Associates property at 1600 Freemansburg Road. Grand Central will provide disposal services for about 1,000 tons of material that will be removed from the site.
The landfill and its operators agreed to participate in the project in lieu of being assessed a civil penalty for notices of violations issued by the department in 2018. The violations cited by DEP included alleged offsite odors that resulted from far-above-normal rainfall and weather-related construction delays at Grand Central, and from conditions observed during facility inspections. The conditions observed during the facility inspections have been corrected and the agreement closes the violations.
“Two years ago, the area received more than 72 inches of rain,” Grand Central Manager Joe Statile said. “Average rainfall in the Slate Belt is 48 inches. The abnormally high rainfall increased the amount of landfill gas naturally produced in our landfill and delayed the expansion of our landfill gas collection system.
“Despite our best efforts, these conditions inconvenienced our neighbors and resulted in the DEP notices,” Mr. Statile said. “We’ve made many adjustments to make sure we do not have a repeat of this situation.”
Mr. Statile said that instead of conducting annual gas collection expansion projects, the work now is conducted twice a year. The landfill also has increased the number of contractors certified to handle this specialized construction work.
“We’re proud of the changes we’ve made and our operating record since 2018 and know that our neighbors have noticed the improvement,” said Mr. Statile. He noted that the landfill’s systems performed well when Tropical Storm Isaias brought more than seven inches of rain to the site on Aug. 3.
“We’re also thankful for the opportunity to support DEP’s clean-up of the MS Recycling site through the CEP,” Mr. Statile said.
The property where the cleanup will take place is owned by Barnsdale Associates, LLC, 221 Langhorne Ave., Bethlehem.
# # #
About Waste Management
Grand Central Landfill in Plainfield Twp., Northampton County, is operated by Waste Management. Waste Management is based in Houston, Texas, and is North America’s leading provider of comprehensive environmental services. Through its subsidiaries, Waste Management provides waste collection, transfer, disposal services, and recycling and resource recovery. It is also a leading developer, operator and owner of landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. The Company’s customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers across the United States and Canada. To learn more information about Waste Management, visit wm.com.