A thorough environmental site assessment should be conducted at Harrisburg incinerator before sale to LCSWMA
Editor’s note: NewLanc today posts more than 1,000 pages of Harrisburg incinerator / DEP environmental documents attained through Right to Know requests. To download the documents, click here (45MG).
Common sense requires that a thorough and independent environmental site assessment of the Harrisburg incinerator and its grounds be conducted before the proposed sale of the incinerator between the Harrisburg and Lancaster waste authorities.
The Harrisburg incinerator is a notoriously tainted industrial facility holding a mountain of incinerator ash that has been the center of ongoing environmental controversies for the last three decades.
Toxins likely have migrated off site with wind and groundwater, endangering neighbors and Susquehanna River wildlife alike.
As I wrote last week, documents on file at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reveal that the Harrisburg incinerator illegally processed and disposed of hazardous material for years, if not decades.
As well, more than 1,000 pages of additional DEP records, posted here today, represent 1,000 more reasons to conduct an honest environmental assessment at the site. These 1,000 pages of DEP documents reflect years of serious environmental and regulatory problems at the incinerator.
Amazingly, neither the Harrisburg nor Lancaster waste authority appears to have reviewed these documents before the proposed sale.
A thorough environmental site assessment goes further.
An environmental site assessment identifies the nature and extent of contaminants on a given piece of property.
An environmental site assessment is the “process of estimating and evaluating significant short-term and long-term effects of a … project on the quality of its location’s environment,” one business dictionary explains. “It also includes identifying ways to minimize, mitigate, or eliminate these effects and/or compensate for their impact. An environmental impact assessment is prepared on the basis an environmental assessment.”
As well, there is a site assessment procedure that could qualify the incinerator ash pile as an EPA Superfund site.
Most homebuyers are familiar with a pre-sale home inspection. A home inspection discovers any problems with a property so that any dangers or complications are known to all parties, and can be addressed, before an important transaction is made. Many people wouldn’t think to buy a home without a formal inspection.
Amazingly, officials of both the Harrisburg and Lancaster waste authorities have skipped this vital step.
Both authorities say they have a limited environmental report conducted by the same consultant.
This is woefully inadequate and unacceptable for a $150 million transaction of this importance.
As one professional said to me, “Both waste authorities are out of their cotton-picking minds if they don’t insist on a pre-sale environmental assessment.”
It’s in the interest of the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, its officers, and its bond investors to know what they are buying, and what problems they may be liable for, before the sale goes through.
