{"id":202707,"date":"2025-12-26T12:16:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T12:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202707\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T12:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T12:16:22","slug":"the-toxic-cocktail-brewing-in-pennsylvanias-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202707\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Toxic Cocktail\u2019 Brewing in Pennsylvania\u2019s Waterways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/project\/frackings-forever-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Fracking\u2019s Forever Problem<\/a>: Eighth in a series about the gas industry\u2019s radioactive waste.<\/p>\n<p>BELLE VERNON, Pa.\u2014Off a back road in the hilly country south of Pittsburgh, a tributary to the Monongahela River runs through overgrown vegetation and beneath an abandoned railroad trestle, downstream from the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill. On a cool day in late July, it was swollen with rain. Tire tracks through the dense brush were puddled with muddy water.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Environmental scientist Yvonne Sorovacu and local watershed advocate Hannah Hohman, her glasses spattered with raindrops, stood together under an umbrella, watching the tumble of the stream. Both women visit the landfill site regularly to collect water samples and record signs of contamination. The water here, which flows downhill from the landfill\u2019s discharge point, is often coated with stiff globs of foam, Sorovacu said. The water upstream of the outfall is clear.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of more than a decade, as Pennsylvania\u2019s fracking industry took off, the Westmoreland landfill accepted hundreds of thousands of tons of oil and gas waste and wastewater, toxic and often radioactive byproducts that contain elements and heavy metals from deep inside the earth and synthetic chemicals used in the drilling process. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/radiation\/tenorm-oil-and-gas-production-wastes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">That melange<\/a> can include radionuclides like radium, uranium and thorium as well as harmful substances like <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC7225182\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">arsenic, lead and benzene<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.protectpt.org\/post\/westmoreland-sanitary-landfill-spills-hundreds-of-gallons-of-toxic-leachate-while-asking-to-dump-was\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">years of violations<\/a> at Westmoreland, scientists and residents are keeping a close watch on the landfill, monitoring for any signs that runoff has made its way into public waterways. But oil and gas waste is going to landfills across the state, often with far less scrutiny. At least twenty-two other landfills currently take Pennsylvania oil and gas waste, and some also accept it from other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Oil and gas companies operating in Pennsylvania reported creating nearly 8.8 million tons of solid waste between 2017 and 2024, an <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/19122025\/pennsylvania-oil-and-gas-waste-tracking-logistical-mess\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inside Climate News analysis<\/a> of state records found. In an average year, that tops the waste produced by every resident and commercial enterprise in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located.<\/p>\n<p>Read More<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/19122025\/pennsylvania-oil-and-gas-waste-tracking-logistical-mess\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"330\" height=\"220\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail-medium size-thumbnail-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"A view of the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Belle Vernon, visible from a strip mall parking lot. Credit: Scott Goldsmith\/Inside Climate News\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill539-330x220.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tTracking Oil and Gas Waste in Pennsylvania Is Still a \u2018Logistical Mess\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tBy Kiley Bense, Peter Aldhous<\/p>\n<p>\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to Pennsylvania oil and gas operators, about 6.3 million tons of this waste went to landfills in the state. But the true amount of oil and gas waste reaching the state\u2019s landfills is likely much larger, an Inside Climate News investigation found.<\/p>\n<p>And mounting evidence suggests that this ever-increasing volume is harming the streams, creeks and rivers where Pennsylvanians fish, swim, kayak and source drinking water.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In one case, at Max Environmental Technologies Bulger in southwestern Pennsylvania, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified the radioactive element <a href=\"https:\/\/echo.epa.gov\/detailed-facility-report?fid=110059900978\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">radium<\/a>, a common contaminant in oil and gas waste, as one of the likely causes of the pollution in nearby creeks. In a 2023 study, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1470160X23007586\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">found elevated levels of radium<\/a> in the sediment downstream of the outfall at five of the landfills taking the industry\u2019s waste. Scientists have also discovered radium build-up in <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/02012025\/elevated-levels-of-radium-found-in-western-pennsylvanias-freshwater-mussels\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">freshwater mussels\u2019 bodies and shells<\/a> downstream of facilities that have treated oil and gas waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1813\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"The Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill dominates the horizon in Belle Vernon.\" class=\"wp-image-103790\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill376.jpg\"\/>The Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill dominates the horizon in Belle Vernon.<\/p>\n<p>Four of the landfills taking oil and gas waste are out of compliance with their permits, an Inside Climate News review found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another seven have been out of compliance with the Clean Water Act for six months or more in the last five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen are discharging wastewater or stormwater into waterways the EPA classified as \u201cimpaired,\u201d too polluted or otherwise degraded to meet water-quality standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read More<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/20122025\/pennsylvania-fracking-radioactive-waste\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"330\" height=\"220\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail-medium size-thumbnail-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"A truck for Noble Environmental, the parent company of Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Belle Vernon, Pa., drives down a road on a rainy day. Credit: Scott Goldsmith\/Inside Climate News\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill124-330x220.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tTwenty Years Into Fracking, Pennsylvania Has Yet to Reckon With Its Radioactive Waste\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tBy Kiley Bense, Peter Aldhous<\/p>\n<p>\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>State regulators have been aware of these issues for years, but little has changed in the way the waste is handled, transported or disposed of. In 2020, then Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the publication of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneygeneral.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/FINAL-fracking-report-w.responses-with-page-number-V2.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">grand jury investigation<\/a> into fracking, which concluded that Pennsylvania had failed in its responsibility to protect the public from the environmental and health impacts of the industry. One of the grand jury\u2019s eight recommendations for the state government called for clearer labeling of fracking waste during transport.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur government and the shale gas industry currently have no long-term sustainable solution to managing the toxic waste generated by fracking operations,\u201d the panel wrote. \u201cAt the very least, the industry should be required to more safely and responsibly transport this waste around the Commonwealth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Pennsylvania, contamination from fracking is layered on top of earlier waves of pollution from coal mining, manufacturing and oil drilling. One of the most prevalent sources of contamination is abandoned mine drainage, a type of pollution that comes from coal mines; like a number of other landfills in Pennsylvania, Westmoreland was <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/23022025\/pennsylvania-landfill-pollution-problems-fracking-waste\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">built on top of<\/a> a shuttered mining operation. Despite decades of clean-up efforts, more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srbc.gov\/our-work\/pamphlets\/abandoned-mine-drainage.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5,500 miles of streams<\/a> in Pennsylvania are still affected by abandoned mine drainage, with devastating consequences for aquatic wildlife. Acid mine drainage, a type of abandoned mine pollution, is the second leading cause of stream pollution in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been little research into what this jumble of pollutants might mean for the environment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/project\/frackings-forever-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-96461\" style=\"width:300px\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Fracking-Forever-Bug.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re mixing these things together into some kind of toxic cocktail, what are the impacts going to be on Pennsylvania\u2019s waters?\u201d said John Quigley, who previously served as the head of both the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. \u201cThe cumulative impacts of this could be horrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Westmoreland did not respond to requests for comment. Max Environmental Technologies, which owns two landfills, said in a statement that its Bulger location is currently closed and its <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/23022025\/hazardous-waste-in-small-pennsylvania-town\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yukon location<\/a> is not accepting oil and gas waste right now.<\/p>\n<p>When reached for comment about threats to the environment posed by fracking waste, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a gas industry trade group, said that existing state and federal laws as well as companies\u2019 safety practices \u201chave proven to be protective of public health and the environment, and our members remain committed to operating safely, transparently, and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sorovacu and Hohman saw that one side of the stream near Westmoreland was a reddish color on the July day they were collecting samples. \u201cYou can see the historic acid mine drainage here,\u201d said Sorovacu, who works for Protect PT, a local grassroots environmental group that has been monitoring the landfill for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of our waterways are impacted by legacy [pollution], but this stream does have drainage from the landfill, so it\u2019s one that we\u2019re concerned about,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s never only one thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Environmental scientist Yvonne Sorovacu has noticed that runoff coming from the Westmoreland landfill often has a whitish appearance, likely because of abandoned mine drainage.\" class=\"wp-image-103794\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill585-1024x683.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Environmental scientist Yvonne Sorovacu has noticed that runoff coming from the Westmoreland landfill often has a whitish appearance, likely because of abandoned mine drainage.\" class=\"wp-image-103796\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill659.jpg\"\/>Environmental scientist Yvonne Sorovacu has noticed that runoff coming from the Westmoreland landfill often has a whitish appearance, likely because of abandoned mine drainage.<\/p>\n<p>As if to emphasize her point, the other side of the stream was a chalky white as it poured from a culvert on the opposite bank. Aluminum-heavy drainage from the coal mine beneath the landfill was a likely culprit, she said. The color acted almost like a visual calling card for water coming from the landfill.<\/p>\n<p>Sorovacu\u2019s test results taken here over the past two years show evidence of mine pollution as well as higher than expected levels of PFOA and PFOS, synthetic \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/12102025\/forever-war-nc-activists-fight-chemours-pfas-water-pollution\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forever chemicals<\/a>\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/pfas\/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">linked<\/a> to increased risk of cancer, developmental delays and reproductive problems. <a href=\"https:\/\/cfpub.epa.gov\/si\/si_public_record_Report.cfm?dirEntryId=359168&amp;Lab=CESER\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Landfills<\/a> are a significant source of forever chemicals. As the women watched, the gush from the culvert whitened further, like a plume of smoke unfurling underwater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh my God, I feel like it definitely got cloudier while we were standing here,\u201d Sorovacu said, her eyes widening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just got even more dramatic,\u201d Hohman agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hohman is an environmental steward at Three Rivers Waterkeeper, a nonprofit that works to protect the watersheds of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. She lives locally and responds when residents call the waterkeeper about potential contamination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yvonne Sorovacu records the water that is coming from the landfill site at Westmoreland and compares it to water that isn\u2019t. Credit: Courtesy of Yvonne Sorovacu<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are on alert about this facility, and they\u2019re concerned about what\u2019s coming into their waterways,\u201d she said. She hopes that more of them are starting to understand that the more the gas industry grows, the more waste it generates. That waste has to go somewhere. \u201cIt\u2019s all connected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Legacy pollution like acid mine drainage, meanwhile, can complicate efforts to prove the source of contamination. \u201cIt\u2019s really convenient for operators to point to a company that doesn\u2019t exist anymore, and say it\u2019s because of that. Then there\u2019s nobody to be held accountable,\u201d Sorovacu said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s all we want, is accountability,\u201d Hohman said. \u201cAnd honestly, just to get down to the answers of what\u2019s happening to our waterways. What impact does this have? What don\u2019t we know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLittle Texas\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Westmoreland landfill is part of a cluster in southwestern Pennsylvania that has accepted large volumes of oil and gas waste and is also situated on top of former coal mines. Arden Landfill in Washington and Max Environmental\u2019s facilities in Yukon and Bulger are all part of that group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t build anything in southwestern Pennsylvania without building on top of a coal mine,\u201d Sorovacu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just there: Other landfills built on formerly mined land include Keystone Sanitary Landfill, near Scranton, and Phoenix Resources, in the northern part of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Community activists are fighting a proposed expansion at Keystone, which accepted more than 1 million tons of oil and gas waste between 2017 and 2024, DEP records show. The landfill is close to homes, a playground and multiple schools.<\/p>\n<p>In the first half of 2025, Keystone produced an average of 7 million gallons of leachate every month, according to DEP\u2019s figures. Leachate\u2014the liquid mixture created when rainwater flows through a landfill, picking up contaminants along the way\u2014is another worry for environmental groups monitoring landfills that accept large volumes of oil and gas waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DEP <a href=\"https:\/\/files.dep.state.pa.us\/RegionalResources\/NERO\/NEROPortalFiles\/CommunityInformation\/Keystone\/Keystone_Sanitary_Landfill_Inc_CACP.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fined Keystone<\/a> $15,000 this year for exceeding its leachate storage capacity for several months in 2023 and 2024. At a Pennsylvania Senate hearing in 2021, then deputy attorney general <a href=\"https:\/\/www.senatormuth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Becca-Franz.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rebecca Franz<\/a> acknowledged concerns about landfill leachate and fracking pollution. \u201cThere is certainly a long way to go to fix this difficult problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Ross, a retired research ecologist who lives near Phoenix Resources in Tioga County, was part of a decades-long fight to clean up acid mine drainage in the area, including in the streams near the property the landfill now occupies. The community opposed the landfill\u2019s construction in the 1990s, worried about water pollution, but residents lost that fight after a national corporation, Waste Management, bought the property, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Waste Management now owns nearly half of the landfills in Pennsylvania that take oil and gas waste. It did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"677\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Increased rainfall in Pennsylvania due to climate change means landfills will create more leachate, the name of the liquid created when rainwater runs through a landfill, picking up contaminants along the way.\" class=\"wp-image-103791\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill444-1024x677.jpg\"\/>Increased rainfall in Pennsylvania due to climate change means landfills will create more leachate, the name of the liquid created when rainwater runs through a landfill, picking up contaminants along the way.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix landfill has accepted more than 1.7 million tons of oil and gas waste over the past eight years, according to DEP records. It is one of the landfills where researchers found elevated radium downstream of the outfall.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Resources\u2019 leachate testing results from 2024 show elevated levels of the chemical barium, which is often found in drilling waste. For comparison, the test results were almost five times higher than recommended EPA standards for barium in <a href=\"https:\/\/wqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2016_Barium.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">drinking water<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite its long extractive past, from clear-cutting forests to extensive mining, rural Tioga County is a popular tourist destination for camping, hiking and hunting. Pine Creek, downstream from Phoenix, is a \u201ccherished trout stream,\u201d a place people come from all over the state to fish, Ross said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ross is an avid birder, and he says fracking is drowning out the sounds of nature. When drilling started about 14 months ago near his house, he wasn\u2019t surprised when the company took baseline samples of his water in case it became contaminated. But he wasn\u2019t expecting the light and noise pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no peace anymore. I\u2019m ready to move out of my home. I\u2019ve been here 35 years. I just can\u2019t take much of it anymore. It\u2019s never-ending noise now,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t hear ruffed grouse booming anymore, or deer snorting. Songbirds are harder to hear now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Resources\u2019 annual operation reports show that much of the oil and gas waste the site accepts is coming from within Tioga County and neighboring northern counties. The 161,890-acre Tioga State Forest was opened to fracking along with other public lands in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bayjournal.com\/news\/policy\/fracking-yields-both-fears-funding-for-pennsylvania-public-lands\/article_851b2638-c9b6-11ed-bf5a-dffecd15d8fe.html#:~:text=News%20by%20Topic,wild%20character%20of%20beloved%20forests.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2008<\/a> by then Gov. Ed Rendell. Rendell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/pa-governor-rendell-signs-moratorium-protecting-sensitive-state-forest-land-from-future-natural-gas-leases-105793788.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">later banned future leases<\/a>, but existing leases were not canceled.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ross said he rarely goes to the state forest now. What was once a refuge from human interference is dominated by drilling, well pads, pipelines, truck traffic and noise that extends for miles, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe place is just an industrial zone,\u201d he said. \u201cI call it little Texas up there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As natural gas development has accelerated in Tioga County, Ross is frustrated that years of conservation work to clean up the impacts of coal mining on waterways could be undone by a new source of underregulated pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very distressing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one thing after another.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fewer people are paying attention to local environmental impacts than there used to be. \u201cOur watershed group is suffering from a generation gap, where there\u2019s fewer and fewer volunteers,\u201d Ross said. \u201cSo there\u2019s only so much we can do. We don\u2019t monitor the water anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryn Hammarstrom, a member of the Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group, said Pine Creek is still one of the anchors of the county\u2019s ecotourism economy. But fracking brought huge disruptions, he said, sparking financial jealousy between neighbors over gas leases, driving up rents and creating a local homeless population, and slicing through the sense of peaceful seclusion that draws people to this region. He doesn\u2019t think many residents know about the potential harms of the gas wells\u2019 waste or that it\u2019s being disposed of so close by.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople say, \u2018Well, it was natural. It was there anyway,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNo, it was two miles down, locked in shale. And now we\u2019ve pulverized it and brought it up to the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Toxic Stew<\/p>\n<p>At the entrance to the Westmoreland landfill, rainwater sluiced down the steep driveway while a parade of trucks shuttled in and out. Sitting in a car on the narrow shoulder of the road, Sorovacu considered the flow of water running off the hill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re gonna have a really hard time managing their leachate with how rainy this season has been,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of Sorovacu\u2019s questions about Westmoreland, and other sites that produce massive amounts of leachate every year, is whether they\u2019ve adapted to the shifting weather patterns created by climate change. With heavier and more frequent rainfall comes more leachate to treat and dispose of, and more opportunities for the leachate to pollute.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Three Rivers Waterkeeper\u2019s Hannah Hohman (left) and Protect PT\u2019s Yvonne Sorovacu keep a close watch on waterways near the Westmoreland landfill, aided by tips from residents.\" class=\"wp-image-103795\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill613sq-1024x1024.jpg\"\/>Three Rivers Waterkeeper\u2019s Hannah Hohman (left) and Protect PT\u2019s Yvonne Sorovacu keep a close watch on waterways near the Westmoreland landfill, aided by tips from residents.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Changes in water coloration in the creeks near the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in southwestern Pennsylvania.\" class=\"wp-image-103789\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill356sq-1024x1024.jpg\"\/>Changes in water coloration in the creeks near the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in southwestern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021 alone, Westmoreland held more than 10 million gallons of leachate in its storage tanks, according to the landfill\u2019s annual operations report. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the landfill reported producing an average of more than 23,000 gallons of leachate per day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat landfill right now is probably doing things to control runoff that are OK or have been OK in the past,\u201d Sorovacu said. \u201cBut even if they go by the guidelines that are given to them, will those guidelines be adequate if we keep having these intense rain events?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 60-year-old Westmoreland landfill became notorious in 2018, after the Belle Vernon municipal authority\u2019s sewage treatment plant turned away its leachate for being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alleghenyfront.org\/how-did-fracking-contaminants-end-up-in-the-mon-river-a-loophole-in-the-law-might-be-to-blame\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">too toxic to effectively treat<\/a>. Activists contended that Westmoreland\u2019s leachate had changed in composition because the site was accepting so much solid waste and wastewater from fracking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Westmoreland has been the subject of four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/agencies\/dep\/about-dep\/regional-office-locations\/southwest-regional-office\/southwest-community-information\/westmoreland-sanitary-landfill-llc#accordion-0205dbc04d-item-43fa82c2df\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">consent orders<\/a> from DEP since 2020 for violations of three state laws governing water quality, waste transportation and waste management. The landfill continues to receive large volumes of oil and gas waste, accepting more than 98,000 tons in 2024, according to the landfill\u2019s records.<\/p>\n<p>The landfill is currently trucking its leachate off-site for disposal elsewhere, but it has applied for a permit from DEP to treat the waste itself and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alleghenyfront.org\/mon-monongahela-river-landfill-fracking-waste-radium\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discharge the wastewater into the Monongahela<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe landfill can\u2019t even function properly as a landfill. Now they\u2019re going to add this additional use to the property?\u201d said Gillian Graber, executive director at Protect PT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur view is that the landfill should be shut down, that it needs to be remediated, because it has so much oil and gas waste in it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to keep producing toxic, radioactive leachate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Increasing amounts of leachate fueled by climate change would likely pose disposal problems even without the contributions of Pennsylvania\u2019s natural gas industry. But fracking, which contributes to climate damage, has further upped the ante. Landfills\u2019 leachate now contains elevated levels of chemicals like barium, benzene, ethylbenzene, xylene and toluene, all markers of oil and gas waste.<\/p>\n<p>This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n<p>Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimate.fundjournalism.org\/donate\/?amount=15&amp;campaign=7013a000003Bk97AAC&amp;frequency=monthly\" class=\"button button-red\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Testing results for Westmoreland\u2019s leachate submitted by the company to DEP this year show elevated levels of barium, benzene, toluene and xylenes. Duquesne University\u2019s John Stolz analyzed the data using a method created with his colleague at the University of Pittsburgh, Daniel Bain, to assess whether a water sample has been impacted by oil and gas versus other kinds of pollution. He found Westmoreland\u2019s recent results to be consistent with the chemical make-up of fracking waste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an indication that this landfill leachate continues to have the characteristics of oil and gas waste,\u201d said Stolz, an environmental engineering professor who has studied how shale gas extraction impacts water quality for years.<\/p>\n<p>Mixing old and new pollution\u2014oil and gas waste, forever chemicals and acid mine drainage swirling together\u2014makes it harder to treat the water, he and others warn. It\u2019s not even clear in some cases what the contamination is, let alone its effects on people, the environment and wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re creating a toxic stew,\u201d Stolz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania\u2019s Past and Future<\/p>\n<p>Outside a strip mall that houses a children\u2019s gymnastics center, you can get a better view of the vast Westmoreland landfill next door, which is so large that it can be hard to tell where it starts and ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first saw it from up there, I was like, \u2018Where is it?\u2019 And they\u2019re like, \u2018right there,\u2019\u201d said Jim Cirilano, a community advocate at Protect PT. \u201cIt looks like the landscape. Do you know what I mean? It\u2019s so big, it was unrecognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"block-caption\">Plants grow through the walls and roofs of abandoned houses on the edge of the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill property. <\/p>\n<p>A few homes sit just outside the landfill\u2019s border, but two of them are empty now, Cirilano said, after they were purchased by the company. One of the houses shows signs of long abandonment, trees and vines growing through the walls. He stood beside a rusted dumpster that sat alone in the parking lot as rainwater collected on the pockmarked asphalt and trucks roving over the landfill backed up and beeped. Cirilano identified the calls of a red wing blackbird and a cardinal and watched a flock of starlings circling overhead. He speculated that the birds were finding insects to eat on the parts of the landfill where grass had grown over the waste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSee the vultures on the roof?\u201d he said. Three turkey vultures squatted on top of one of the nearby houses. He sniffed at the foggy air. It had a whiff of something sour. \u201cYou can smell it too, can\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Hannah Hohman responds to residents\u2019 concerns about contamination in public waterways in Westmoreland County.\" class=\"wp-image-103798\" style=\"width:300px\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/250720_Goldsmith_Landfill644-819x1024.jpg\"\/>Hannah Hohman responds to residents\u2019 concerns about contamination in public waterways in Westmoreland County.<\/p>\n<p>Her clothes and hair sodden from the rain, Hohman pondered the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worry that we take so long to respond and adapt that by the time we do, it\u2019s already too late,\u201d Hohman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it over and over again. We live in this cycle of extraction.\u201d She drew a circle with her finger in the air.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, DEP estimated that it would need <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/agencies\/dep\/newsroom\/2025-09-04-shapiro-administration-awards-over-5-2-million-to-clean-up-abandoned-mine-lands\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$5 billion<\/a> to clean up and restore streams and land damaged by abandoned coal mines. It\u2019s far from fully reckoning with the pollution from that older boom, and now it\u2019s well into a new one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we address legacy pollution \u2026 we have new pollution,\u201d Hohman said. She paused as a beeping truck drove over the landfill behind her. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re seeing how those things interact. What\u2019s next?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Inside Climate News\u2019 Peter Aldhous contributed reporting to this article.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n<p>Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n<p>Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you,<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail-medium-square size-thumbnail-medium-square\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kiley_Bense_headshot-300x300.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/profile\/kiley-bense\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKiley Bense\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n<p>Kiley Bense covers climate change and the environment with a focus on Pennsylvania, politics, energy, and public health. She has reported on the effects of the\u00a0fracking boom in\u00a0Pennsylvania, the expansion of the American plastics industry, and the intersection of climate change and culture. Her previous work has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, the Believer, and Sierra Magazine, and she holds master\u2019s degrees in journalism and creative writing from Columbia University. She is based in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fracking\u2019s Forever Problem: Eighth in a series about the gas industry\u2019s radioactive waste. BELLE VERNON, Pa.\u2014Off a back&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-202707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}