The Dump Stink.
"You don't know exactly what it is" they say - Yes, my DEP public comment covered that, thank you. So what the hell is it? We know where it’s coming from, so please make it stop.
The Dump Stink is back. I hadn’t smelled The Dump Stink in a few weeks. It could be that the wind just hadn’t been blowing from the East recently. But The Stink came back this morning. And as usual, since about 2019, when I smell The Dump Stink, I check the weather page, and yes, the wind was coming from the East Northeast. Fortunately, nearing midday the wind changed direction and started blowing from the South instead and The Stink went away. But that also didn’t give any time to report the stink and have it noted and tracked where they send somebody out to confirm the report and such.
The Pennsylvania DEP was having a public comment period last year so I signed up to attend a virtual meeting.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) - Environmental Justice Policy Revision
2023 Public Comment Period - DEP held a public comment period on the revised policy from September 16 – November 30, 2023. During this public comment period, DEP held 3 virtual and 9 in-person public hearings to obtain input.
On October 25th 2023, I made a public comment to the DEP on PA Environmental Justice Policy, here is the text of my testimony:
My name is Chloe Humbert. I have no financial conflicts of interest to declare. I’m retired, part-time self-employed, and speaking for myself and not on behalf of any organization. I live in the city of Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania. I live maybe 4 or 5 miles as the crow flies from a landfill to the east in Dunmore, and this dump mountain can be clearly seen from parts of my neighborhood in north Scranton. The prevailing wind is typically from the west or southwest. But sometimes I know when the wind changes direction and comes from the east because my nose and throat burns, and there’s a foul smell. There is a way to report this to DEP but there is not a way to find out what it is, what’s causing it, and what it contains. What effect is this having? I have also written to my representatives about this from the mayor up to the president and every rep in between. Everything seems to be one way and rather like shouting into a hole. I would like to have a way to get information, ask for study of situations like this, transparency, and an interactive process available on environmental issues.
For a few years now I’ve been reporting this stink. There’s a number to call the PA DEP. On a few occasions gas company inspectors have been sent to my neighborhood, by myself and others, to check for natural gas leaks. We have city gas in my neighborhood, but mostly everyone who's come out has said they know the smell - it’s the dump! It’s the same smell you can smell if you’re near the dump on the highway, if you’re on Route 6, which runs along the east perimeter of the Keystone Landfill. (Route 6 is also called the Casey Highway, named after the late governor of Pennsylvania Bob Casey, father of our U.S. Senator Bob Casey.) The dump can be most often smelled on that highway east of the dump, not just because it’s closer, but because the prevailing wind in the region blows from the West Southwest. That’s also why my neighborhood west of the dump doesn't always get the smell. I would not be able to live where it stinks often, such as in the town of Dunmore. I’ve heard that people in Dunmore smell it quite often, but that they don’t complain because they get their garbage taken away for free. I’m not at all clear on why that is or what arrangement was made to quell residents with free garbage removal, but it can’t possibly be worth the property value hits they must be taking in recent years.
I have occasionally even smelled The Dump Stink on the I-84 highway near Route 435 on my way to and from the Poconos, so while I would’ve been surprised that there are reports of the smell as far as Mt. Cobb, the Dump Stink appears to be traveling through the mountain terrain along the highway rock cuts.
And it was pushed through to be authorized to make the dump mountain some ridiculous amount of stories higher than it is already despite opposition, which would of course mean uncontrolled smells could travel farther and wider more easily. But because of the uncontrolled smells, public complaints, and investigations by the state, in December the PA Department of Environmental Protection suspended a project the dump planned to expand upward.
Strangely, the business manager of the Keystone Landfill was quoted in the news actually trying to assert that the general public doesn’t know what a garbage dump smells like, and that the public is also incapable of determining where a smell is coming from.
“The public in general is not qualified to either identify a specific odor or make a determination as to the origin of the odor,” Business Manager Dan O’Brien wrote.
One thing about this is correct - I don’t know what’s actually in the stink as far as chemicals, and I don’t have the equipment to identify what it is in this foul odor that makes my eyes, nose, and throat burn. And I said that in my public testimony. In fact, that’s a chief concern and complaint that I have. I want to know what this pollution actually is, because it seems health damaging. And the source of the stink should be able to tell us what it is, or at the least the PA DEP should be able to identify the contents of this pollution. I’m concerned because this isn’t merely a nuisance issue, it’s a public health hazard.
But obviously the idea that we can’t know that it’s a garbage smell, and where the smell is coming from, is absurd. Olfactory senses don’t require any special technology to determine that a smell is being generated by trash and I don’t actually need to check a weather monitor to know what direction the wind is coming from if I just go outside and feel it.
The Times-Tribune - DEP explains process following Keystone Sanitary Landfill odor violation BY FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY STAFF WRITER Dec 19, 2023 Pat Clark, a leader of grassroots group Friends of Lackawanna, said it is “far past time for action.” “What we’re interested in is the action, not the potential action,” he said. “We’re interested in the results, not the threats. We want to see something done.” Friends of Lackawanna formed in 2014 to oppose the landfill and its now-approved expansion. Clark contended the DEP should “zoom out a bit” and look at the landfill’s violations and other reprimands as a whole, rather than reviewing each instance on an individual basis. “We’ve always wondered and been confused by how many bites at the apple this particular landfill is given to get things right,” he said. “They screw up. They say they’ll get things right. They don’t get things right, and then they get reprimanded and say we’ll get it right the next time.”
It’s not enough to just be “working to compliance” we need actual solutions. I got tired of getting no answers from PA DEP, so I just started writing to my PA state senator (Marty Flynn) every time the Dump Stink is particularly bad with the question, “What are you doing about this?”
I’m obviously not the only one frustrated with the system we pay for with our taxes. This is the point to having these systems so that community problems get fixed with solutions. I’m happy to pay Pennsylvania’s income and sales taxes, and if it’s not enough to deal with this stuff, they clearly need to put some of this tax expense on the companies causing problems and bring everything up to grade.
And the dump’s business people are now retreating to just asserting that hey, they’re not the only source of EVERY odor.
The Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s list of odor violations continues to grow, though the landfill contends it is not the source of every odor. The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation Monday for the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill, citing the facility in Dunmore and Throop for four violations after it failed to control odors from leachate lagoons, according to the DEP and its violation letter. Leachate is the liquid that percolates through garbage piles.
Sure, it’s skunk mating season and we’ve had to hire an animal control service. I have neighbors who have outdoor wood fires. I’ve heard people on Nextdoor complain of sewer smells from time to time. The storm drain on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton outside the state building has stunk like sewage for years. And walking the streets in the neighborhood the night before garbage day after a holiday weekend can smell pretty unpleasant with fresh garbage. But I know the difference. The dump stink is more chemical-like than someone’s trash can outside on a hot day.
The idea that anyone is attributing “EVERY” odor to the Dump Stink is, frankly, RUBBISH! I know this particular garbage dump smell. And it’s when the wind blows from the east. The landfill people need to stop trying to gaslight hedge, and the DEP needs to stop pussyfooting around. They need to suck it up and deal with their liquid leachate and whatever else is “percolating” out of that place, so I don’t have to suck it up in my nostrils and spend hours, and then sometimes days afterward in discomfort and pain with nose bleeds and headaches. It’s beyond just “annoyance” and “discomfort” that’s "objectionable to the public” - it’s a health issue. And it needs to stop. The only thing they ought to be percolating at the dump for human consumption is coffee in the employee kitchen.