UPDATE -- The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed the study and said it is working with DEP to take air and water samples to see if the dump has had any effect on the health of residents living nearby.
The agency released the following statement: "We are working with the Department of Environmental Protection on this matter and will be attending the public hearing on April 27. We will provide in-depth information on our plan at that time."
DUNMORE -- It appears the state wants to know if the Keystone Landfill threatens the health of people who live near the dump before it gives the approval to expand.
Action 16 has learned that the state health department has commissioned a study to be done to test air and water around the Keystone Landfill in Lackawanna County. The dump in Throop and Dunmore is in the process of applying for a permit to expand.
We've learned that the state health department study started in January and has been going on under the radar until now. Its findings could go a long ways toward allowing, or stopping, the proposed expansion of the Keystone Landfill.
A group of 10 homes off Sanderson Street in Throop is the closest neighborhood in the borough to the Keystone Landfill.
"About two miles, not even, maybe about a mile and a half."
John Balendy has a few concerns about the proposed landfill expansion. He says some of his neighbors wonder how hundreds of tons of household garbage are trucked to the landfill, then buried there, affect public health.
"I can understand people's reasons, you know? It does get scary. You know, you never know what's going to be in those trucks," Balendy said.
Soon, people living near the Keystone Landfill may have some answers. The Pennsylvania Department of Health told the Lackawanna County Medical Society it's performing a health study of neighborhoods in Dunmore and Throop.
"They did take water samples, and the medical society was privy to that information. As far as anything else, they haven't released anything else to us at this point," said Dr. Ariane Conaboy, Lackawanna County Medical Society.
According to the U.S. EPA, there have been dozens of health studies surrounding landfills that take household trash, but the studies have been, "hard to quantify." That means experts can't find any links between the landfills and any health problems in nearby neighborhoods.
The state health department is not commenting on its study, but most surveys of communities near landfills focus on air and water quality and look for higher than normal levels of cancer and birth defects.
"We need facts. We need the truth, and we need to be able to measure it," said Dr. Conaboy.
The Lackawanna County Medical Society is not taking a stand on the proposed landfill expansion. It hopes the study by the state provides a clean bill of health for neighborhoods near the facility where tons of trash are trucked in every day.
"You don't know what's really being brought in by these trucks, especially when they're coming in from out of state," Balendy added.
Keystone Landfill had no comment on the state study, which has not revealed any health issues in the neighborhoods near the facility.
There's no word on when results of the study by the state department of health will be available.
Anyone who wants more information on the proposed expansion of the Keystone Landfill will get that chance later this month.
DEP has scheduled an open house on Monday, April 27 at the Throop Community Civic Center. There will be two sessions: one from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the other from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
