EASTON, Pa. — A Northampton County judge upheld easements blocking a planned expansion of Bethlehem Landfill, a nonprofit involved in the suit announced Monday.
In 2023, Bethlehem Landfill put forward plans to build 86 acres of new disposal area on land the company owns along the Lehigh River in Lower Saucon Township.
However, a pair of conservation easements prohibit landfills on more than 200 acres set to house the expansion.
After Lower Saucon’s township council voted to void the easements at a 2023 meeting, a group of residents filed a lawsuit asking a judge to overturn their vote.
St. Luke’s Anderson Campus hospital, Bethlehem Township and the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor soon joined the suit as intervenors.
According to a statement released late Monday from Citizens for Responsible Development, a group of Lower Saucon Township activists backing the lawsuit, Judge Abraham Kassis ruled that township officials lacked authority to release the easements, a job that would require approval from an Orphans’ Court judge.
Bethlehem Landfill cannot expand onto the protected property as long as the easements are enforced.
The landfill company may file an appeal challenging Kassis’s ruling.