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

  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 supervisors are committed to moving the community forward, by putting its reputation for natural resource consumptive industries in the past and seeking to foster and attract positive economic development.  (The three supervisors who voted against the proposal are originally from Palmerton, Upper Nazareth and Bangor)

 Lisa Perin, granddaughter of landfill founder Robert Perin, has stated the landfill was started in the 1960’s in response to requests by borough mayors for a place to dispose of their garbage.  In 1988, the township enacted a carefully designed Solid Waste zoning district, allowing for future “fair use” expansion far beyond what many township citizens wanted to allow.  For decades the landfill has taken in more garbage from outside Northampton County than from within; in the fourth quarter of 2021, 75% more garbage was disposed of from NJ than from Northampton County, and only 21% of the total waste disposed originated from within the county.  By 2028, the landfill will have consumed the maximum space planned for, in large part by welcoming the disposal of other people’s garbage.

Voters were well informed where candidates stood on the rezoning issue

 In the 2021 Municipal Election, two candidates for supervisor in Plainfield Township were against rezoning for solid waste expansion, and two were in favor.  A PAC was formed to oppose rezoning, supporting the candidates against it.  After a well-publicized campaign, the voters elected the two candidates against rezoning.  2,133 votes were cast for candidates opposed to rezoning, and 1,375 for candidates in favor.

 Only a few years ago, Waste Management and its non-profit electricity sales arm Green Knight Economic Development Corporation attempted a different expansion of solid waste.  In 2016-2019, they proposed locating a Synagro sludge processing plant on landfill property, that would have processed 400 tons of sewage sludge a day, and the pelletized sludge product would have been disposed of on farmland across the Lehigh Valley and Monroe County.   No citizen unrelated to the project spoke in favor of it at public meetings held over 2 years and 10 months.  Lisa Perin warned in testimony “Does your community want this [Synagro], should be the number one most important question in your mind.  No.”   Plainfield Township spent $220,000 of taxpayer dollars challenging incomplete land development plans and refusals by Synagro to complete requested environmental studies before the application was withdrawn in September 2019.  Only a few months later, Waste Management revealed its rezoning request.

  After the rezoning request was rejected, Green Knight sent a letter to Plainfield Township supporting the already rejected rezoning request to expand solid waste uses.    The 2021 election results, the July 2020 vote by supervisors to reject rezoning, and the 2019 vote by supervisors to reject the Synagro project, all reflect that Waste Management and Green Knight’s vision to perpetuate solid waste disposal is not aligned with that of the community.  The Green Knight’s board has nine seats; three members are supposed to represent each community.  Two members resigned during the failed Synagro project, a funeral home director and a real estate agent.   Today there continues to be only seven board members, and the municipalities of Wind Gap, Pen Argyl and Plainfield Township have no say whatsoever in who is appointed to Green Knight - it appoints its own members.   Green Knight states that it represents the communities, but clearly Green Knight believes that a small handful of self-appointed people in an organization who’s very future relies on the continued operation of the landfill represent what is best for Plainfield Township – in comparison to a board that is appointed by elected leaders that is in fact representative of each community.

 In May 2018, Lisa Perin stated: “A landfill has a time limit. At a certain point it can no longer expand.  It has nowhere to go.”   This point has been reached in Plainfield Township – we have done our fair share, and our citizens’ votes show that we do not wish to create a second landfill.