Today's Editorial in The Scranton Times-Tribune supports Scranton City Council's initiative to have the Auditor General evaluate DEP's processes as it relates to landfill expansions.
From today's editorial: "Waste disposal is a public burden, but the Keystone project demonstrates the burden for it falls disproportionately on a few areas. Yes, garbage has to be disposed somewhere, but that doesn’t mean that it always has to be here."
As to the feasibility of of the audit? We agree with Council Solicitor Kevin Hayes on this issue, “To be certain, the Auditor General has the discretion and authority to conduct a special performance audit in order to provide an independent assessment of DEP’s procedures, including the permitting process for landfill expansion applications ...It is City Council’s opinion that DEP’s landfill permitting process is in dire need of independent scrutiny in the wake of its recent approval of Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s 40-year expansion plan which was met with overwhelming opposition from the residents most directly affected by this facility.”
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DEP audit of process sound idea
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
State approval of the massive Keystone Sanitary Landfill expansion betrays the public interest in Northeast Pennsylvania, but it is far from a local issue.
Allowing any single enterprise to impose so massive an environmental, economic and quality-of-life burden on any particular area calls for a rethinking of state environmental law and regulation.
To that end, Scranton City Council came up with a fine idea in asking state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor to conduct a performance audit of DEP’s permitting process.
Performance audits go beyond the matter of money-in, money-out, and analyze how public agencies actually use the public’s money to conduct their work.
In the case of the DEP permit approval for the Keystone Landfill, there are a multitude of technical requirements that the landfill had to meet, which always is an aspect of regulation.
But the DEP “cost-benefit” analysis of the project, which is required by state law due to an earlier massive landfill project in Lackawanna County, requires investigation.
Even under the current Keystone landfill, the DEP has failed to detect odors that were obvious throughout the surrounding neighborhoods several years ago. And the state attorney general has opened an investigation into wastewater disposal issues at the landfill, which are supposed to be the province of the DEP.
Even though the expansion will result in 188 billion more pounds of mostly out-of-state garbage being dumped in the middle of Lackawanna County over the next 40 years, the DEP managed to conclude that the project’s benefits outweigh its costs to the community.
A performance audit could begin with that analysis, which clearly failed to consider the most fundamental impacts of the burgeoning dump on its surrounding communities.
Ideally, such an examination would lead to a further one in the state Legislature. It should craft environmental law to limit the size of waste projects. Waste disposal is a public burden, but the Keystone project demonstrates the burden for it falls disproportionately on a few areas. Yes, garbage has to be disposed somewhere, but that doesn’t mean that it always has to be here.
Council’s request is reasonable and well-considered. DeFoor should take the challenge.
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