Operator of Westmoreland County landfill agrees to clean up issues found by EPA
SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new consent order to a hazardous waste landfill in Westmoreland County, and the company has agreed to come into compliance by correcting issues that led to Clean Water Act violations.
When Deborah Franzetta moved to South Huntingdon Township in 1988, she was told the massive landfill about a mile from her home would be good for the economy and jobs.
"It's just affected our life because this facility is there and it is in so close proximity to a lot of homes in the area. Really the type of operation that it is should have never been permitted so close to residential dwellings," Franzetta said.
MAX Environmental Technologies' landfill in the Yukon area of the township is about 160 acres. The dump's treated hazardous waste is discharged into Sewickley Creek, which eventually ends up in the Youghiogheny River.
"It's not just the local community that's being affected. It's all those communities downriver that have and continue to be affected, and they don't even know it," Franzetta said.
A new EPA consent order was issued to MAX after EPA inspectors found multiple failures last year to properly maintain and operate the waste management facility. Those failures include:
- holes in the wastewater treatment system.
- inadequate reporting of sample results.
- pollution prevention employee training not being provided.
- levels of metals like cadmium and zinc and other pollutants in landfill discharge and stormwater runoff at the facility from January 2022 to July 2023 exceeding permit limits 20 times.
"It really feels like MAX was not only polluting the Commonwealth waters but also impacting their trainees by potentially not protecting them," said Eric Harder, Youghiogheny River keeper with the Mountain Watershed Association.
This is the second consent decree issued to the company since the spring. The first was issued in April over hazardous waste violations. Harder collected samples on Tuesday at MAX's outfall into Sewickley Creek.
"We go every week to see if it is going to be discharging or not. The last results that we had, or at least in the last two months, we've seen exceedances of their permit for zinc and lead," Harder said.
In the new consent order, MAX agreed to improve water monitoring, evaluate certain operations and develop a plan for correcting issues related to the permit violations.
For many community members, it's about time. But tidying up the issues is not enough for them.
"Two things that I'd like is for them to be permanently shut down, not to be able to accept any other toxic waste. And then to address what's in the consent decrees. The new one, too," Franzetta said.
"We'd really like to see MAX cease and close operations. But with a really watchful eye by the DEP and the EPA," Harder said. "No more accepting waste, no more shipping it off to any other places. Basically, remediating the site to the extent that the EPA has pointed out some of their faults and some of their issues," he added.
Carl Spadaro, environmental general manager of MAX Environmental Technologies, provided a statement to KDKA-TV:
"With respect to the EPA consent order, we have significantly improved our compliance with our permitted effluent limits over the past year. There have not been any pollutants in stormwater runoff at our facility. We have been working with EPA and PADEP to maintain compliance with our NPDES and other environmental permits and will continue to do so under the EPA consent orders. We have completed some repair work. None of the deterioration in some parts of our wastewater treatment system has caused untreated wastewater to be released into the environment. We treat all of our wastewater. We will have a third-party engineering evaluation of our wastewater treatment system completed this fall and based on recommendations made by the engineers, we will make any necessary repairs and upgrades later this year and early next year."
The EPA is holding a virtual/hybrid listening session to hear from residents on Oct. 9 at 6:30 pm.
The Mountain Watershed Association invites people to come to the Yukon Fire Hall to participate in the EPA listening session.