Pennsylvania residents file $5M lawsuit against Waste Connections landfill

Two Freemansburg, Pennsylvania, residents have filed a class action lawsuit against a landfill in Lower Saucon Township, saying its odors and pollutants are affecting area residents’ daily lives, a report by leighvalleylive.com says. The IESI Bethlehem Landfill is operated by Waste Connections, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

Robin and Dexter Baptiste filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania and are demanding $5 million. The plaintiffs are also inviting owners and renters of residential properties in a 2.5-mile radius to join the class. At the time the lawsuit was filed, 85 households had contacted the Baptiste’s attorney documenting odors attributed to the landfill.

The suit alleges that the landfill has repeatedly failed to address maintenance and management issues, including odor control. It lists several failures, the report says, with five ranging from 2012 to 2015. The report says the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, determined that Bethlehem Landfill was not in compliance of the state’s Solid Waste Management Act and Municipal Waste Management Rules in May, saying the landfill failed to correct foul odors, failed to maintain an intermediate cover that prevents odors and failed to implement an approved gas control and monitoring plan.

IESI representatives said in July 2015 that the landfill increased its monitoring of methane gas beyond state requirements and worked to seal in odors, the report says. Those changes came after the state found two violations: failure to maintain sufficient cover to prevent odors and failure to implement the approved gas control and monitoring plan.

Priscilla deLeon, a Lower Saucon councilwoman, says in the report that smells at the landfill were terrible a few years ago, and the DEP issued eight violations after an April inspection. She says in the report there haven’t been any odors from the landfill in recent months and complaints from people in her township have decreased.