Valley residents urged to attend landfill hearing

The DEP is seeking public input on a request to discharge treated leachate into the Monongahela River.

Representatives from three environmental organizations are urging Mon Valley residents to attend a hearing next week to voice their opposition to a permit submitted by the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill seeking approval to discharge waste into the Monongahela River.

Protect PT, Three Rivers Waterkeeper and Physicians for Social Responsibility were represented Thursday night at a meeting at Monessen High School with more than 30 local residents in attendance.

“When people have been hurt so often, they might feel like they can’t do anything, that’s not the case,” said Protect PT staff attorney Dylan Basescu. “You can do something. Like I said, the DEP has to consider these comments. They have to explain their reasoning. They have to show their work.

“They only have to do that if you show up, if you put it on the record, if you let them know in advance, so they can’t say that they didn’t know.”

The landfill, located in Rostraver Township, has submitted a permit application to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to discharge treated leachate into Speers Run and the Monongahela River near the Belle Vernon bridge.

The DEP will hold a permit hearing from 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 20 at the Rostraver Central Fire Department social hall, located at 1100 Fells Church Road. The hearing will give residents a chance to express their opinions concerning the landfill permit.

According to Heather Hulton VanTassel, executive director of Three Rivers Waterkeeper, the landfill owned by Noble Environmental since 2016 has faced multiple consent orders for contamination violations. Protect PT stated that the landfill continues to breach these orders.

The landfill’s past violations relate to leachate contamination, which contains harmful chlorides and radiation from fracking waste. According to Protect PT, the leachate can contain radium, heavy metals and organic compounds that can cause cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and more.

WSL previously asked Belle Vernon Treatment Works to maintain the leachate from the landfill, but that request was rejected. The leachate is too expensive to truck off site, and it can’t be evaporated into the air.

Basescu said after trying other methods, WSL is resorting to throwing the leachate waste into the Monongahela. Basescu and Hulton VanTassel said such waste could contaminate public water from the Mon Valley to the city of Pittsburgh.

“We want to just really focus on the fact that this permit for water discharges completely ignores the fact that there is known fracking wastewater on this facility,” Hulton Van-Tassel said. “There’s nothing on that discharge limit that would hinder their ability to directly dump fracking waste into our drinking water source, the Monongahela River, which feeds the Ohio River, which is drinking water for 5 million people.”

Mon Valley residents will have a chance to provide oral comments during next week’s meeting. Comments will be limited to three minutes and can be up to 450 words. Residents must register by contacting Emily Green, Southwest Regional Environmental Justice coordinator, by email at emgreen@pa.gov or by calling 412-442-4042 at least 24 hours before the meeting.

There will be an option to send written comments with a deadline of April 3 by emailing RA-EPNPDES@pa.gov or mailing to DEP Southwest Regional, care of Clean Water Program, 400 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15222. Written comments can be longer than oral comments and can include more information.

A written copy of the oral comments should be submitted to the DEP. Both oral and written comments should include the name, address, email, and phone number of the resident.

Basescu and Hulton Van-Tassel encourage everyone in the community to come to the hearing, including elected officials.

“Even if you don’t do a comment and you submit a written comment, it’s going to be really important that you come, even the number of faces in the room, not just voices, are going to make a difference,” Hulton VanTassel said. “And it is our right to say no to something that’s going to harm us. And if we just don’t show up, if we don’t pay attention to things like this, then we’re going to be continuously harmed by things that we can’t reverse.”

Residents who have any questions or need help creating their comments can contact Basescu at Dylan@protectpt.org and Hulton VanTassel at heather@threeriverswaterkeeper. org.