EASTON, Pa. \u2014 A Northampton County judge upheld easements blocking a planned expansion of Bethlehem Landfill, a nonprofit involved in the suit announced Monday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, a pair of conservation easements prohibit landfills on more than 200 acres set to house the expansion. <\/p>\n
After Lower Saucon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus hospital, Bethlehem Township and the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor soon joined the suit as intervenors.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 Court judge.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Landfill cannot expand onto the protected property as long as the easements are enforced.<\/p>\n
The landfill company may file an appeal challenging Kassis\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. \u2014 A Northampton County judge upheld easements blocking a planned expansion of Bethlehem Landfill, a nonprofit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,30986,154,30987,30989,30990,30988],"class_list":{"0":"post-56094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-landfill-expansion","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-conservation-easements-bethlehem-landfill","13":"tag-expansion-of-bethlehem-landfill","14":"tag-is-bethlehem-landfill-expanding","15":"tag-judge-upholds-easements-blocking-bethlehem-landfill-expansion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}