Keystone Sanitary Landfill looks to send wastewater to new destination
The Keystone Sanitary Landfill proposes to discharge its treated leachate through Throop’s sewer system into the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority’s wastewater treatment plant in the borough, rather than continue using Pennsylvania American Water.
Throop Borough Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for the Keystone Sanitary Landfill to address council and the public regarding its request to transfer its treated leachate — the liquid that percolates through garbage piles — to the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority, or LRBSA, through part of Throop’s sanitary sewer system, according to a public notice published Wednesday in The Times-Tribune.
Now underway with its 40-plus-year Phase III expansion that will triple its volume of waste by hauling in just over 94 million tons of additional garbage, the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill in Dunmore and Throop would send its treated wastewater to the LRBSA’s plant on Boulevard Avenue in Throop near the Interstate 81 overpass. Keystone currently pipes its wastewater to Pennsylvania American Water’s treatment plant at 2500 Sanitary Drive in South Scranton.
The Throop plant serves Archbald, Blakely, Dickson City, Jefferson Twp., Jessup, Olyphant and Throop, according to the LRBSA website.
Throop Council President Rich Kucharski emphasized that no decisions have been made at this point. The plan is in its infancy, he said.
“We’re just doing our due diligence,” he said.
Kucharski said he wants as many people as possible to attend next week’s meeting. The borough is also working with the landfill to have a public tour of Keystone’s in-house leachate treatment system, which uses a process called reverse osmosis, he said. Reverse osmosis uses pressure to force liquid through a semipermeable membrane, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’re having this meeting for the public to just let them know this is what’s being asked, this is what we’re doing, and where do we go from here?” he said. “That’ll be how we base our decision with respect to how we’re going to proceed or not.”
Both Throop and the LRBSA would have to approve Keystone’s proposal, he said.
As part of the project, the landfill said it would completely rehabilitate Throop’s sanitary sewer line, including relining it in its entirety, removing root infiltration and fixing broken joints, Kucharski said. Keystone and Throop have independently used cameras to inspect the sewer system, he said.
Asked whether Throop would seek more incentives from the landfill for its use of Throop’s sewer system, Kucharski said, “We would be looking for something like that, quite honestly.”
Based on projections, Throop’s sewer system is capable of handling the leachate, he said.
LRBSA Executive Director Mike Matechak first approached the sewer authority over a year ago. The landfill would send about 270,000 gallons of leachate per day to the treatment plant, Matechak said. At that flow rate, the landfill’s wastewater would fill an Olympic-sized pool in just under 2.5 days.
The LRBSA’s plant has a capacity of 10 million gallons per day, and its average flow is between 6 million and 6.5 million gallons per day, Matechak said.
“We would have capacity at the plant,” he said. “It wouldn’t be an issue.”
Matechak said he does not have direct knowledge of why Keystone is looking to switch from Pennsylvania American Water to the LRBSA, though the LRBSA has lower treatment costs.
“Whether it’s strictly an economic decision, if it’s a technical decision, I don’t know exactly,” he said. “(The landfill) would have to answer that question.”
Landfill consultant Al Magnotta declined to comment Thursday.
The landfill’s reverse osmosis system provides a high level of treatment before the liquid reaches their plant, Matechak said. As part of the process, the LRBSA would establish limits on what could be in the liquid that the landfill discharges to them, he said.
The landfill wants to move forward with the proposal as soon as possible, though it is dependent on council’s decision as well as the process of rehabilitating the sewer lines, Kucharski said.
“Should we agree to this — should we even agree to it — then there are additional discussions and terms that we would really need to establish,” he said.
Council will vote on the proposal at a future meeting, though Kucharski was unsure how soon that could be.
“We just want to get the information out to the public and to get feedback to help us make a decision,” he said.
Throop will hold its special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Throop Civic Center, 500 Sanderson St.
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