Landfill expansion embraces out-of-date mindset
The Lehigh Valley faces a serious political choice in the proposal to expand the Bethlehem landfill (actually in Lower Saucon Township) onto adjacent land for another 30 years of dumping.
Controversy surrounds the plan, unveiled in late 2022, which would have the Township Council vote to sacrifice 275 acres of forest along the Lehigh River, protected by conservation easements, to dramatically increase the landfill’s dumping space. Opponents of the plan cite the impacts: not only the trashed greenspace, but also the natural beauty lost to recreational users of the river and the D & L Heritage Trail along the Lehigh; the increased threats to nearby communities and neighbors from air and water pollution and trash truck traffic; the greater risk of groundwater contamination and broader impacts to the downstream watersheds and communities of the lower Lehigh and Delaware rivers.
This controversy represents a profound struggle: between old 20th century business-asusual with its environmental and economic risks and losses, and 21st century alternatives that could protect us and our descendants from the growing threats of climate instability and environmental disruption.
Landfills are ugly legacies that we leave to our children and future generations as imposed collections of refuse that will be our Lehigh Valley forever. Landfills are not 21st century technology. They’re a vestige of the old out of sight; out of mind thinking. Landfills are the manifestation of common desire to remove waste from our lives by throwing it away. We now understand that in the real world there is no “away” there is only away from me which is, always, of course, toward somebody else. Our waste policies, approved by government and business leaders, create winners and losers. People who make and throw away trash, and people who live in or near the
communities we call “away.”
The attractiveness and property values of places are related to the distance that they are from “away.” That distance creates both physical and political effects, as people who live near landfills are often unrepresented in the political municipality where the landfill is sited. Unappealing businesses are often located at the edge of one jurisdiction (that makes the rules and laws for the facility), but next to another municipality. The landfill was originally owned and operated by Bethlehem, but located in Lower Saucon Township, which, not surprisingly, is downwind and downstream from the city.
There is an illusion that continues our out of sight, out of mind bias in those communities that get tax dollars or host fees from a facility, that they are safely distant from the landfill site impacts, but those short-term calculations neglect the inescapable fact that unsavory businesses and abandoned waste sites remain the responsibility of the local jurisdiction forever. The short-run
revenue gains from the “risky business” can be dwarfed when the long-term costs of the operation come due and the operator is no longer around.
Our Lehigh Valley landfills (all in Northampton County) were originally like other “dumps; located on the edge of towns. But, over time, the three sites became large industrial “disposal” facilities —partly because of steadily increasing per capita waste-making but also because we are so near New Jersey and New York, producers of lots of waste. The 400,000 tons of waste dumped in 2022 came mostly from out-ofstate. Pennsylvania officially lists 48 operating landfills in its 67 counties, but Northampton County’s three landfills take in more than 4 tons of waste every year for each of the330,000 people in the county. The old “America Starts Here” slogan for Pennsylvania has been converted to “America Dumps Here.”
Our local leaders need to protect the Lehigh Valley from more decades of being “dumped on.” The 21st century response to
the problem of burying our trash (and our heads in the sand) is to heed the old recycling adage that it really isn’t garbage until you mix it all together and throw it away. Different unwanted materials can have their best disposal by following the simple but timeless “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” model. Mixing garbage all together dumps organic (carbon containing) materials such as food, paper, wood and lawn waste together with other trash and buries them. When all that carbon matter from years of dumping decomposes anaerobically underground, it creates methane (CH4), a more immediately impactful (flammable) greenhouse gas than CO2. Landfills are the third largest source of methane pollution, so, in the Lehigh Valley we are not only getting dumped on, we are accelerating climate change for the few cents a pound the dumpers pay to bury their trash here forever.
We are already in the 2023 election season, In the May 16th primary, Democrats and Republicans will select their candidates for the November election. Landfill expansion opponents suggest a political timeline is driving the Lower Saucon Township Council’s effort to approve the landfill’s expansion — to move quickly to prevent voters from having their say. The Bethlehem Landfill’s webpage does not even mention the expansion plan, though the company is actively pursuing the legal measures to make it happen. Clearly, the most democratic response would be to let the township citizens vote — for or against 30 more years of dumping — to determine their community’s future. All area voters should demand waste reduction policies to protect the Lehigh Valley’s and the planet’s future.