DUNMORE, Pa. — The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to Keystone Sanitary Landfill for failing to control the smells at its facilities in Dunmore and Throop.
The landfill violated the Solid Waste Management Act, the Municipal Waste Management rules and regulations, and its operating permit.
The state DEP, over the last few months, confirmed that odors they detected came from landfill gas. The landfill did not properly prevent odors, the DEP said. A November 16 inspection found elevated methane readings near the Casey Highway.
The landfill has 30 days to submit a proposed plan that corrects and prevents the violation.
"We want the public to know that DEP hears them, is conducting investigations, and is taking action according to our findings,” said DEP Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley in a statement. "Residents deserve to live in their community without having to smell putrid odors. This is totally unacceptable and adversely affecting quality of life. We are asking residents to continue to call DEP with odor complaints, and the department will continue its enhanced response to make sure residents no longer have to deal with this nuisance.”
Attempts to reach a representative from the landfill for comment were not immediately successful.
People who live in Lackawanna County are hoping for a solution.
"I hope it is either fixed or closed down," said Rodney Rumford from Eynon. "Or maybe there is some other landfill in a country who's had similar problems, and they can draw some kind of ideas from them and maybe solve our issues there."
The violation comes a few weeks after the DEP suspended the landfill’s plans to add more garbage to previously capped areas.
That action, too, centered on complaints of bad odors.