Landfill analysis pits money vs
Keystone Sanitary Landfill owners Louis and Dominick DeNaples have sweetened the deal.
In an updated version of their application to extend the landfill s life by piling on waste for 48 years, local colleges and universities, the boroughs of Dunmore and Throop and the Dunmore Senior Center,patagonia mlc bag review3 would all receive grant money.
Landfill consultant Albert Magnotta brought the new version of Keystone s benefits and harms analysis to a recent meeting with The Times Tribupatagonia down sweater reviewsne, when he made the case for the landfill s expansion. It was recently submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
He pointed to an Aug. 17 editorial by the newspaper calling for a rigorous costbenefit analysis of the proposed expansion, arguing that the one he submitted meets that standard.
Harms benefits analysis has been a crucial piece of the landfill permitting process since 1988, when the DEP adopted regpatagonia better sweater insulated hoody women'sulations that govern modern landfills.
All I m asking for is an objective analysis of the harms and benefits, Mr. Magnotta said.
Keystone proposed the following grants and contributions in the new document:
$100,000 ppatagonia mlc bag reviewer year to a Lackawanna College environmental education program. Dominick DeNaples serves on the college s Board of Trustees.
$100,000 per year to the Dunmore Senior Citizen Center. Keystone already makes this contribution. It committed to extend it if the expansion is approved.
$60,000 per year to pay for environmental, social services, recreational, educational and cultural programs offered by Throop borough. Keystone would release the funds after receiving project scopes from Throop.
$10,000 per year each to the University of Scranton, Penn State Worthington patagonia catalyst daypack reviewScranton, Marywood University, Lackawanna College, Keystone College and Johnson College. The conpatagonia mlc bag review2tributions would go to need based scholarships, with preference given to students from Dunmore and Throop.
$10,000 per year to Dunmore to fix Tigue Street from Drinker Street to Dunham Drive and Dunham Drive from Tigue Street to Reeves Street. Keystone would release the funds after receiving a request from Dunmore, pending approval from an engineer hired by Keystone. A one time $250,000 contribution to Throop to assist with the restoration of Eddy Creek, a ruined stream which reduced to a trickle that drops runoff into the underground mine pool. Keystone would pay to obtain 2,000 feet of right of way and utility relocation in the borough.
These newly proposed grants and gifts add up to about $15.6 million over the landfill s prpatagonia mlc bag review0oposed 48 year life. That s not including the other economic benefits Keystone argues should be considered: host municipality fees and free waste disposal for Throop and Dunmore, contributions to state Growing Greener, recycling and postclosure funds, taxes paid to statnew patagonia infant down sweater buntinge and local governments, purchases of equipment and servicediscount patagonia coatss from local vendors and lower waste disposal costs for governments in Northeast Pennsylvania.
In total, Keystone argues its continued existence will offer the region more than $3 billion over its proposed expansion. One assumption in that calculation is that Keystone will increase its host payment to Dunmore from $0.41 per ton to $1 per ton on Dec. 1, increasing 5 cents every 10 years until it reaches $1.50 per ton. Dunmore and Keystone are still in discussions on that fee.
But economic benefits are not the most important part of the harms benefits analysis, according to the DEP official who wrote the first landfill permit in the state under the new regulations.
William Tomayko, manager of DEP s waste management program at its Northeast office in Wilkes Barre, has regulated landfills since 1980, when the state passed the Solid Waste Management Act. That act gave the DEP legal grounds to develop landfill laws and stop illegal dumping.
To gain DEP approval to operate a landfill or expand one, a landfill must take that basket of harms and make it very small, Mr. Tomaykosaid.
If a landfill achieves that, arguing for its benefits becomes much eapatagonia discount code southwestsier, he said. The balancing has never been, like, a big problem once you get past that point bpatagonia mlc bag review1ecause there are benefits to a landfill, Mr. Tomayko said.
In its analysis, Keystone lists potential harms from its activities, organized into eight sections property values, aesthetics and community character, public health and safety, environmental justice, uncompensated losses to local governments, quality of life, harms to the local economy and harms to the surrounding environment.
Specifically, the section addresses problems like litter, odor, dust, traffic and landfillloving birds, followed by plans to lessen each patagonia everlong review vinylpotential harm.
To deal with these, Keystone touts its control systems, including leachate collection pipes and treatment plant, its system of double liners made of durable highdensity polyethylene separating waste from the ground, a groundwater monitoring system of wells tested four times a year and a methane gas collection system, to name a few. Landfill officials are also proud of their ISO 14001 certification, a voluntary program to maintain high environmental standards. It includes twice a year audits by Lloyd s of London.
Keystone concludes the analysis implicitly demonstrates that the benefit clearly outweighs any potential environmental, social and economic harms.
Pat Clark, a Dunmore resident and co founder of online recruiting software company Hyrell, has been following the expansion closely, going through the harms benefits analysis and making notes.
I think the whole process is largely a sham, he said.
The core of the problem is that the landfill lists benefits with a dollar amount, while harms are not quantified, he said.
Not one harm has a dollar amount on it other than the cost to repave the road that the dump trucks are going to use to get into tpatagonia guide pants 40x29he landfill, he said, though he acknowledged it would be difficult to place a dollar patagonia hiking boots bigvalue on something like an unobstructed view of the mountains.
Plus, some of those benefits payroll, taxes and expenses are also part of the cost of doing business, he said, and shouldn t be considered.
