Pennsylvania landfill cited by state DEP

A 350-acre landfill in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, that has applied for an expansion permit has been cited by that state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for leachate runoff violations.

The Keystone Sanitary Landfill was cited in mid-November with three violations, according to an online report by the Times-Tribune of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Two of the three violations were disclosed in documents Keystone filed with the DEP in seeking its expansion permit while the other was for its delay in making the disclosures. According to the Times-Tribune, “Water monitoring wells intermittently have been picking up contamination at the landfill’s leachate treatment plant for 13 years or longer, with Keystone and DEP officials struggling until recently to identify the source.”

The source of the leaks has now been determined to trace to one of the landfill’s retention ponds or a pipe that serves it. A spokesperson for Keystone says a liner and pipes in a location where the problem appears to have been identified have been replaced.

Less than a week after the news report of the violations, the Times-Tribune published a strongly worded editorial column questioning the environmental integrity of the Keystone landfill and the wisdom of expanding it and granting it a 44-year permit.