{"id":56823,"date":"2025-12-10T02:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/56823\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T02:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:01:09","slug":"bethlehem-landfill-expansion-plans-thwarted-by-court-ruling-bethlehem-area-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/56823\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Landfill expansion plans thwarted by court ruling | Bethlehem Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. &#8211; The Bethlehem Landfill in Northampton County was just dealt a legal defeat.<\/p>\n<p>A judge has officially reinstated two conservation easements, protecting forested land where the landfill was hoping to expand its operations. From Bruce Petrie&#8217;s property, you can see the top of the Bethlehem Landfill through the trees.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The wind blows west to east, so we get that nice smell coming from the landfill, and when we moved here over 30 years ago, you couldn&#8217;t even see that. So, it&#8217;s built up to a monstrosity,&#8221; said Petrie.<\/p>\n<p>Then, almost three years ago, he and several other landowners learned the landfill was planning to expand by hundreds of acres. They got together to file a lawsuit to fight it, and this week, they finally won.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew going into this, not only were the facts on our side, but the law was on our side,&#8221; said Petrie.<\/p>\n<p>The decision by Judge Abraham Kassis re-instated two conservation easements, protecting 200 acres of forest from being developed. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/lehighvalley\/lower-saucon-supervisors-pass-controversial-rezoning-plan-during-6-hour-meeting\/article_1dbdd39c-4769-11ee-8e6b-07b7cf17c16b.html?fbclid=IwAR2RYFedbx09YsO0ayYfokCwNVhe_3BKXPsBiXwarjafcOdkVEjBwxVbmts_aem_AWS-HIJxuGRzEiTbegvroM2LulS1csHO_aDwsCpVKA6N2RYhNKlmflR6fxBu-595434\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lower Saucon Township removed those easements in 2023<\/a>, but then new members, including Victoria Opthof-Cordaro, were elected to the board.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A council majority, including myself as Vice President, voted to answer agreeing with the plaintiffs, and saying that the township didn&#8217;t do the right thing,&#8221; said Opthof-Cordaro.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, more members have been elected to the Board who oppose landfill expansion, like Chad Heimbecker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we got a message here that Lower Saucon Township is not for sale,&#8221; said Heimbecker.<\/p>\n<p>The Bethlehem Landfill told us it would not comment on pending litigation, so it&#8217;s not clear if it plans to appeal the decision, but if it does Petrie and the township said they&#8217;re ready.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they want to spend shareholder dollars fighting a losing cause, that&#8217;s their right to do it,&#8221; said Petrie.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what their next move will be, all I know is that the truth prevails, and when people come together, the community wins,&#8221; said Opthof-Cordaro.<\/p>\n<p>The Bethlehem Landfill now has 30 days to decide whether it wants to appeal Judge Kassis&#8217; decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. &#8211; The Bethlehem Landfill in Northampton County was just dealt a legal defeat. A judge has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,30842,154,30845,6039,30844,2676,31326,205,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-56823","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","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-conservation-easements","13":"tag-environmental-protection","14":"tag-landfill-expansion","15":"tag-lawsuit","16":"tag-legal-defeat","17":"tag-lower-saucon-township","18":"tag-northampton-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56823","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=56823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}