Nov 16, 2017 4 min read

At least one person who lives near a Bulger waste-disposal facility wants stronger provisions than those Smith Township officials have proposed placing on their approval of plans to build a new residual-waste landfill at the site.

The township’s attorney, however, contends the conditions supervisors can place on the project are limited.

Townships supervisors plan to hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. today. They could vote on Greentree-based MAX Environmental Technologies’ application to build a new residual-waste landfill and waste-processing plant at its Bulger site, which mainly handles waste from Marcellus shale oil and gas operations.

A proposed motion the township solicitor prepared for supervisors to consider includes 32 conditions.

“The supervisors expressed various concerns at the two conditional-use hearings, and my proposed motion is based upon my hearing notes as well as what I believe can effectively be enforced by the township,” said township solicitor Michael Cruny. He added supervisors “have the final say and can amend the proposed motion as they see fit.”

MAX Environmental proposes to build a 23-acre landfill at the facility, which opened nearly 60 years ago. It was previously owned by a company called Mill Service. MAX representatives said during hearings concerning their plans in September and October they have not yet submitted an application for state approval of their plans. Construction on the project would start in 2020 or 2021, according to the company’s website.

The landfill would operate for roughly 10 years.

The waste at the new landfill would be similar to the materials the facility already takes. MAX also proposes to begin taking technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials, or TENORM, which are often found in oil and gas waste.

Company manager Carl Spadaro said last month its plans are aimed at remaining competitive with similar facilities. He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

One resident who lives across the township line and was among several who voiced concerns about the project last month during the second of two conditional-use hearings contended the township’s conditions have “no teeth.”

“It should have better protections because it is a landfill with a new waste stream to include radioactive waste,” said Cathy Lodge, who lives in Bulger, Robinson Township, and is a frequent critic of the natural gas industry.

Lodge said she wants to see two other conditions. One would be to prevent he facility from accepting TENORM at the new landfill.

Cruny, however, said in an email the township’s zoning ordinance doesn’t specifically regulate TENORM. It does allow a facility to accept nonhazardous waste if the operator has the necessary state and federal permits – criteria that meet DEP’s residual-waste standards. The types of waste MAX can accept at the site are ultimately up to DEP, he said.

“I think a lot of the confusion from the public’s standpoint concerns what type of materials will be allowed at the site. Although this must be taken into consideration by the township during the zoning approval process, ultimately that decision has been given to the DEP,” Cruny said.

Lodge said the conditional-use process gives supervisors a chance to resolve a “conversation started back in the 1990s” about adding people who live near the site to a public water supply.

Mill Service sent letters and surveys to people within half a mile of its property in 1990 to ask residents with private water supplies about their “water supply needs.”

That discussion resurfaced in 2006, when MAX received DEP approval to reclose two impoundments to help stem groundwater contamination at the site.

Spadaro was an engineer with DEP’s waste division during that process, according to Observer-Reporter archives.

A letter from township supervisors the following year asked MAX to revisit the issue of providing water to residents within a half-mile of its facility, some of whom reportedly told officials they have water “hauled in weekly.”

Cruny said in an email he was “not aware of any legal authority of the township to require MAX to provide water within a half-mile radius and at this time have not been asked by the township to look into this.”