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Waste Management holds informational meeting to promote rezoning proposal rejected two years ago

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  A week ago, Waste Management sent a mailer to the citizens of Pen Argyl, Wind Gap and Plainfield Township, extending an invitation to an informational meeting on June 21 st to explain a request that Plainfield Township expand its solid waste zoning district by 211 acres so that Grand Central Sanitary Landfill may install a second landfill across Pen Argyl Road from the existing one. Waste Management Mailer, inviting citizens to attend meeting to explain proposal that was officially rejected two years ago  Missing from Waste Management’s invitation, and related materials on its website, is the fact that this request was officially rejected almost two years ago in a 3-0-2 vote on July 8, 2020 by Plainfield Township supervisors following discussion at two lengthy in-person public meetings.  No modified request has been submitted.  The supervisors who voted against expansion are all senior natives of this area – they are not what some refer to as “transplants” from NY or NJ.   These su
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Election Topic - the Economics of a Landfill, the Importance of Avoiding Conflict of Interest, and Who's Garbage is That, Anyway?

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The financial stakes for the planned closure of Grand Central Sanitary Landfill as it consumes the last available portion of space that was carefully planned and zoned for solid waste disposal are huge.  Let's look at 2009, the latest year for which statistics are publicly available for the amount of waste generated by Northampton County, disposed of in the landfill. The Northampton County Municipal Waste Management Plan 2010-2020 shows that in 2009, 43,046 tons of municipal solid waste generated in the county were disposed of at GCSL.  The Plan also shows that tipping fees received by GCSL were $105 per ton. For that year, Plainfield Township records reflect that 371,290 tons of solid waste were disposed of in the landfill.  Since the landfill operates roughly 5-1/2 days a week, this works out to 1298 tons per day.  At $105 per ton, the 2009 average daily income for an operating day is $136,290, and the income for 2009 is $38,985,450. It should be noted that in 2009 a decline in w
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Supervisor Candidate Sends Mailer to Voters on Eve of Election, Failing to State His Connection with Green Knight and Grand Central Sanitary Landfill

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 With six days until election, and having not made any effort to state a platform other than yard signs placed in some yards, candidate for the Plainfield Township Board of Supervisors Bob Cornman has sent out a mailer to voters.   When Mr. Cornman was interviewed by the Morning Call a week ago, and asked about his conflict of interest with Green Knight Economic Development Corporation, he stated that he would resign from Green Knight and devote his energies to the citizens of the township.  Mr. Cornman and current Supervisor Steve Hurni have been members of Green Knight since its founding in 1999.  Mr. Hurni has not made such a pledge yet, but he is in his tenth year serving as a township supervisor, and must abstain from all votes associated with Green Knight and Grand Central Sanitary Landfill.  Green Knight is a non-profit entity created by Waste Management to sell electricity generated by burning landfill gas to the grid. In responding to the Morning Call's question about hi
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Letters to the Editor Associated with the Plainfield Township Supervisor Election November 2021

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 There have been four Letters to the Editor published in the Morning Call and Express Times associated with the November 2, 2021 election of two Supervisors in Plainfield Township.  Elisa Robles-Carlo has submitted a fifth, yet to be published.  The authors of these letters have provided the full text so that they may appear here.  In July 2020, the Plainfield Township Board of Supervisors rejected a request by Waste Management to rezone farmland, so that the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill can be expanded.  14 months later, the landfill has done nothing to reveal its next move.  It would not make sense to return with the same proposal.  In August 2020, Plainfield Supervisor Steve Hurni, who is also the Green Knight Economic Development Corporation Secretary, announced at a Board of Supervisors meeting that he had requested the state Ethics Board to rule on if he has a conflict of interest if he votes on issues related to the landfill or Green Knights.  Fellow Supervisors expressed
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Election topic: The Mysterious Black Box Known as Green Knight Economic Development Corporation, a Non-Profit Land Development Company

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  In 1999 Waste Management wanted to burn landfill gas from Grand Central Sanitary Landfill, and sell the electricity generated to the grid.  It created the Green Knight Economic Development Corporation (GKEDC).  Landfill spokespeople said that this entity was designed to be "apolitical".  A consequence of this is that Board members of GKEDC are not appointed by the three communities that GKEDC is supposed to represent: Pen Argyl, Wind Gap and Plainfield Township.  Originally, there were to be three Board members representing and living in each of the three communities.  Soon after inception, however, GKEDC changed its own charter so this was no longer a requirement.  Today, five board members live in Plainfield Township, one in Wind Gap and two in Pen Argyl.   There have been eight board members since two resigned four years ago during the Synagro sludge plant public relations disaster, and only one replacement was appointed by autonomous Green Knight.  If the three municipa
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Election topic: Attracting new businesses to Plainfield Township

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ASGCO Manufacturing Headquarters, grand opening in August 2021 at 730 Bangor Road  In a certain circle in this area of the Slate Belt, you will hear grumbling that "Plainfield Township is not friendly to new businesses."  This false claim was repeated by Bob Cornman, another of the candidates in the election for township supervisor in an article published a few days ago in the Morning Call.  This is a narrative that simply does not fit the facts. Exhibit A is the newly constructed ASGCO Headquarters building at 730 Bangor Road, Plainfield Township, the site of the former NICOS Polymers Recycling business.  ASGCO is a light manufacturer of conveying products, and this site is in the township's light industrial zoning district.  The NICOS Polymers bulk recycling business was previously located here.  NICOS had constructed a spec building permitted as a "Commercial Use", and did not originally intend to have a bulk recycling use - which is not permitted in the lig
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Election topic: Denied rezoning of farm and forest to solid waste - a closer look

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 In 1988, Plainfield Township's Solid Waste zoning district was created, as a result of a request by Grand Central Sanitary Landfill to increase its size.  Thus involved many months of study by a Study Group of citizens and interested parties, with the advice of professional consultants.  Many residents did not want the landfill to be expanded.  The end result was that a significantly larger area than the landfill requested was zoned for solid waste, to allow for future expansions.  The principal cited by counsel was that the landfill should be able to expand until a "Fair Share" of land area was used - at which point the township would not be obligated to allot further space for a landfill.  The township's Comprehensive Plan reflects the area planned for solid waste, and the solid waste zoning district has identical boundaries as shown on the Zoning Map:  At the July 2020 hearing at which the Plainfield Township BOS rejected the landfill's request to rezone farml
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