The state Department of Environmental Protection denied a request from Dunmore\u2019s elected officials to permanently station an inspector in Lackawanna County to respond more quickly to odor complaints at the Keystone Sanitary Landfill.\n<\/p>\n
Every member of borough council and the mayor signed a letter in August<\/a> to DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley criticizing the department\u2019s odor-reporting process, contending that response times from inspectors dispatched to odor complaints within the borough can \u201cvary anywhere from 15 minutes to a number of days.\u201d<\/p>\n The Aug. 28 letter asked the DEP to employ an inspector within Lackawanna County, rather than dispatching inspectors from its Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre, to reduce response times and \u201cprovide a more accurate account of the number and intensity of the odors coming from the landfill.\u201d The typical response time is several hours, and by that time, the odor has dissipated, the borough said in the letter.<\/p>\n Council President Janet Brier and council members Katherine Mackrell Oven, Tom Hallinan, Michael Dempsey, William \u201cTrip\u201d O\u2019Malley, Beth McDonald Zangardi and Patrick \u201cNibs\u201d Loughney all signed the letter, in addition to Mayor Max Conway.\n<\/p>\n Shirley responded to the request Thursday in a letter addressed to council.\n<\/p>\n \u201cDEP understands the importance of timely responses to odor complaints. While we share your goal of ensuring that odors are accurately assessed, DEP does not permanently assign inspectors to a single county or facility,\u201d Shirley wrote, explaining DEP staff are assigned within a region\u2019s geographic boundaries. \u201cThis allows DEP to respond to not only odor concerns from just one facility, but also to a wide range of environmental issues across the entire region from a host of facilities and sites.\u201d<\/p>\n She concluded her letter by saying the department is open to meeting with members of council at DEP\u2019s regional office, directing the borough to contact Northeast Regional Director Joseph Buczynski, P.E.\n<\/p>\n Borough council decided during its meeting Monday to request a meeting with DEP officials, including Shirley, Brier said. She emailed the department Tuesday to set up the meeting and was told Shirley would not be coming, Brier said.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to publicly ask Jessica Shirley to come and meet with us, or we will meet with her in Harrisburg, because she is the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection,\u201d Brier said. \u201cWe want to ask her what she perceives as the next steps to curb this situation that we have \u2014 this environmental disaster that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Brier previously sent Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> a letter April 2 arguing the DEP\u2019s odor-reporting process places the burden on residents, asking for harsher penalties on the landfill and requesting new decision-making personnel to evaluate the landfill in Dunmore and Throop\u2019s remanded Phase III expansion.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIf they did understand the importance of (timely responses), then they would respond in a more timely manner, which they do not do,\u201d Brier said.<\/p>\n The latest exchange comes weeks after the DEP temporarily extended<\/a> the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill\u2019s operating permit for 15 months through Dec. 31, 2026, to give itself additional time to monitor Keystone\u2019s odor controls and reevaluate its harms-benefits analysis.<\/p>\n