Environmental group against proposed permit to dump waste into Mon River
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is holding a public meeting Wednesday about a proposed discharge permit involving Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill.
The landfill has applied for a permit to discharge treated leachate from its facility into the Monongahela River. According to the DEP, leachate is moisture produced by waste in a landfill and is comparable to liquid at the bottom of trash.
If approved, the DEP said the landfill would treat the waste on site before discharging it into the river.
Three Rivers Waterkeeper plans to attend the meeting to fight against the permit.
"Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill has, you know, historical issues of compliance and violations of the clean water laws and other environmental statutes. They're known to accept really heavily polluted industrial waste, including fracking waste," said Heather Hulton VanTassel, the executive director of Three Rivers Waterkeeper.
The nonprofit's mission is to protect the water quality in the Monongahela, Ohio and Allegheny rivers.
"We really work to focus on creating a future that we have drinkable, fishable and swimmable waters," Hulton VanTassel said.
She believes the proposed permit would harm the rivers, its ecosystem and drinking water.
"They've [the landfill] tried multiple avenues to dispose of the waste that they have on their facility, and those have been, you know, unsuccessful, specifically, one of those were the evaporator where it eventually was deemed that evaporating their leachate would be too toxic to the communities. So, they've now pivoting to dispose of the waste in the Monongahela River, which is a drinking water source for 1 million people and feeds into the Ohio River, which is drinking water source for 5 million people," Hulton VanTassel said.
If the permit is approved, the DEP said the landfill would have to file for another permit for a treatment facility. The proposed discharge point is near the Stan Musial Bridge, between Monessen and Donora.
"I believe that our community does not want that. We've heard them say this is not what they want. We want to continue down this trajectory of, you know, being able to see our Mon River as an amazing source of recreation. Protect it for the drinking water sources that it is today. We must say no to the permit as it stands," Hulton VanTassel said.
She said not only is the waste contaminated with residential waste, but also industrial waste from fracking.
"We're asking the DEP to do their due diligence. Take back this permit. Realize it does not meet minimum requirements and demand that affluent discharges, so what they're dumping into the water, actually reflect the type of water contamination that they're supposed to treat and remove before dumping into our drinking water sources," Hulton VanTassel said. "When you look at the actual permit, there's only nine water quality parameters that they're actually going to be required to limit, none of which are adequate for the known industrial waste that they accept, meaning that they won't have to monitor for those contaminants before dumping it into the rivers, which means it's likely that those will go into a drinking water source and cause irreversible damage to our communities."
Another environmental group, Protect PT, said it's against the proposed plan as well.
KDKA-TV reached out to the landfill, owned by Noble Environmental, for comment but didn't hear back by airtime.
The public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20 from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Rostraver Central Fire Department Social Hall on 1100 Fells Church Road, Rostraver Township, PA 15012.
