A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge has granted the state’s petition to enforce a September consent order between the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Group Two Properties Inc. to clean up buried waste at the former Reading Industrial Scrap Company site in Muhlenberg Township, Pa.
“Group Two has failed to comply with the consent order and there is no indication that they intend to clean up the site as we agreed in September,” Southcentral Regional Director Michael R. Steiner said. “This ruling will force Group Two to meet the requirements in the cleanup schedule.”
State Attorney General Mike Fisher’s office began excavations in August at the property after receiving tips from former employees that waste was buried there.
A six-day excavation unearthed approximately 200 55-gallon drums, barrels, scrap metal and other wastes.
Although the Attorney General’s criminal investigation continues, DEP is responsible for overseeing the cleanup.
The court order requires the company to submit a written plan for digging up, sampling, transporting and disposing of all waste at the site and beginning that work within 20 days of receiving DEP approval of the plan. In addition, the order provides a schedule for completion of the cleanup and submitting a final report to DEP.
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