Pennsylvania DEP approves Bethlehem Landfill expansion

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has recently approved an expansion for the Bethlehem Landfill in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, a report by The Morning Call says. The 224-acre landfill will receive an additional 28 acres with the approved permit.

According to the report, 22 acres of the planned expansion was previously a landfill while 6 acres is new land. The approval is expected to extend landfill life by five and a half years. Liners, gas and leachate collection systems and odor mitigation is included in the expansion plans.

Donald Hallock, district general manager of Waste Connections, the company based in The Woodlands, Texas, that owns the landfill, says in the report that the landfill would have run out of space in around six months if it continued accepting the amount of waste permitted. Without the expansion, he says, less waste would have been accepted.

Hallock also says in the report that the expansion will be mindful of the comments made by surrounding neighbors. The landfill accepts waste from New York City, New Jersey and other areas of Pennsylvania.

Originally, the landfill filed an expansion application with the DEP in January 2015. Lower Saucon Township officials approved the expansion in June 2016. In April, the DEP conducted an environmental assessment of the proposed expansion and concluded that the benefits of an expanded landfill would outweigh the potential issues.