As reported in the Allentown Morning Call, and recognized here, a class action lawsuit was filed in February by affected citizens against Grand Central Sanitary Landfill, for odors ruining the quality of life of citizens living in the area of the landfill.
DEP spokesperson Cathleen Connolly passes the issue off as a seasonal issue in the article, but the fact is odors are not to emanate past the property boundaries of the landfill. What comfort does it give the people attempting to enjoy the use of their properties if they are being made miserable while there, to say "it's just seasonal - hey, it happens with landfills"? And how could they dream of selling their property if they wanted to move?
Over the past four to five years, a large stack of complaints has piled up. The files below consist of inspections and complaints received in this time period. Read em and weep - that intolerable stench is the landfill.
As reported in the Morning Call, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Northampton County Court over the increase in odors this past year at the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill, owned by Waste Management.
The fact it is in the past year is critical, since the landfill has been producing odors that travel offsite for years. That is what landfills do, and why the towns in the area are done putting up with people's shit. Both figuratively and literally are dumped here daily in quantities over 100 tons each - which explains why nobody except Nolin Perin, Waste Management, Green Knights and Synagro thinks a proposed biosolids plant processing 400 tons of shit a day is a fantastic idea. It is the change in level of odors that has harmed the plaintiffs - they can't sue for whatever odors have occurred beyond a statutory period, such one year.
"We can't breathe back here!" How this could affect proposed Synagro shit bakery
Even though plaintiff Robert Huratiak is quoted in the article stating this is not about Synagro's application, it can be. The article also states that DEP has taken note of the number of complaints registered by objectors at the November 7, 2018 hearing DEP held on the Synagro application:
"DEP officials told Waste Management in the Dec. 4 letter that the landfill odors and “potential future odors” related to the plant were a “consistent theme” among people who testified during a public hearing DEP conducted Nov. 7 regarding the proposed plant."
March 5, 2019 Morning Call web article
In the event this crappy proposal is issued permits by DEP, citizens and towns and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network will be shoving themselves into line to appeal their issuance to the PA Environmental Hearing Board. One ground for appeal could be that DEP is permitting an additional shit stank operation on a property that is already generating more than its share of shit stank, and ruining people's lives in the process.
First of multiple lawsuits?
The pooper scooper here at the Poop and Water Extraction blog has snagged some solids in its net - and in the process "caught wind" of some intelligence information. There may be more lawsuits launched in the near future, like projectile diarrhea.
Anthony Salamone's informative article on the class action lawsuit is here:
