MERCER — The organization trying to prevent Tri-County Industries from reopening a landfill and accepting hydraulic fracturing extraction waste at its property in southeastern Mercer County is planning to continue its fight.
Jane Cleary of the Citizens Environmental Association of Slippery Rock Area, known as CEASRA, said she is optimistic that the group will prevail with its case before the state Commonwealth Court, even after the state Department of Environmental Protection and its hearing board ruled in Tri-County’s favor.
Cleary addressed a meeting of the Democratic Women of Mercer County Saturday at the Mercer Area Public Library, to discuss progress on the case. She told a group of about 20 people at the meeting that the DEP disregarded important considerations in granting Tri-County’s permit to reopen the landfill and accept radioactive waste from hydraulic fracture drilling of natural gas.
She said the landfill presents an air-traffic safety concern due to its location about a mile from Grove City Airport in Springfield Township. The trash in landfills attracts scavenging birds, which can strike arriving and departing airplanes.
FAA regulations prohibit the opening of new landfills within six miles of an airport to safeguard against bird-vs-aircraft strikes.
In its 2006 paper introducing the regulation, the FAA said 87% of strikes involving wildlife, mostly birds, and aircraft take place during takeoff and landing, within 2,000 feet of the ground. Cleary said that would present a danger at Grove City Airport.
“Every plane that lands, every plane that takes off from Grove City Airport goes over the landfill,” she said.
Cleary said her organization also is concerned about the landfill’s acceptance of the hydraulic fracture wastewater. The waste can contain radium-226, a byproduct of natural gas extraction from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields, she said.
Extended exposure to high levels of radium-226 is linked to cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although low levels of the substance are normal and are not associated with any health problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a safe level of 5 picocuries of radium per liter of drinking water.
Cleary said leachate from the landfill would likely contain far more radium than the EPA standard.
The landfill operated until 1990, when changing environmental regulations forced its closure. Tri-County applied for reopening permits in 1997, 2001 and 2013 – which DEP denied – until the state agency granted approvals in 2020.
The state Commonwealth Court will now hear the case, with Pittsburgh-based environmental attorney Lisa Johnson arguing CEASRA’s case.
Johnson is familiar with environmental impact cases involving the oil and gas industries, Cleary said.
A key factor in the fight to stop the landfill, Cleary said, will be in raising money to keep the court case going. Liberty Township, which has opposed the landfill’s reopening, has paid more than $200,000, a sum matched by CEASRA, but Pine Township is declining to contribute.
Brenda Eperthener, a member of Democratic Women of Mercer County from Grove City, said she thinks Tri-County is banking on CEASRA to give up.
“I think in (their) mind, (they’re) trying to wear us out,” she said.
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