ASHLEY--- There are questions as to whether the site of the old Huber Breaker was cleaned up properly after its demolition three years ago in Ashley.
On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office along with the Department of Environmental Protection were looking into it.
State agents were dressed in white hazmat suits as they used a search warrant to look into a garage on the site along South Main Street.
Neighbor and member of the Huber Breaker Preservation Society Ray Clarke said he’s been suspicious for years of what was left behind of the breaker.
“A lot of people died as a result of mining the coal in the breaker. It’s a shame that they disrespected these people by doing what they did,” Clarke said.
There’s no comment from the DEP or the attorney general’s office as to what they were looking for inside the garage.
However, a Luzerne County judge has put the property owners, Paselo Logistics, on notice that the clean up of the site was not up to the DEP’s standards.
“I think the bottom line was they were more concerned about profit than doing things that were proper,” Clarke said.
A judge is even allowing the DEP to check the property owners’ finances to find out whether they have enough money to clean the place up to the DEP’s standards.
Clarke said he thinks all of this could have been avoided if the breaker could have remained standing, instead of being torn down.
“I would’ve felt better if they left the breaker up so that we could've kept it as a historic landmark,” Clarke said.
Newswatch 16 reached out to the attorney for Paselo Logistics for a comment, he did not return our calls.
