Expanding a Contaminated Landfill - Public Policy or Public Corruption? 

      As I follow the ongoing dispute over a proposed expansion of the Chrin landfill, the quote that leaps to mind is from that great observer of America, Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” 

     For in 1981 and 1982, as a member of Easton’s Coalition of Religious and Civic Organizations (CORCO), I worked with Williams Township and Easton residents to oppose an expansion of the Chrin landfill. As a result of our research into the landfill’s operation, I was able to write an article about the historic and current (1981) practices at the landfill. Here is an excerpt from the article: 

     “The Chrin landfill’s history begins in 1961, when Chrin Brothers bought the land from Shober. There was a rat problem, a litter problem, and when Chrin got its permit from the township, it was on the basis that this site would become a model facility.”

      “Since 1962, the landfill has served the needs of a large portion of Northampton County, as well as Phillipsburg and upper Bucks County – 175,000 in 11 communities. The landfill has also met the needs of local industry, such as Met Ed, which has dumped transformer oil containing PCB’s; Easton Hospital, miscellaneous body parts; City of Easton, sewage sludge; Pfizer Co, iron oxide sludge; etc…: “

     "To further complicate the problems confronting this landfill, records from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Massachusetts Division of Water Pollution Control, tand the Congressional Eckhardt List, all indicate that Chrin Landfill has accepted hazardous chemical wastes illegally. The New Jersey records show that 85 shipments of hazardous wastes totalling 2,505,870 pounds were dumped at Chrin in 1978 and 1979.” “Both the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DER) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have found evidence of industrial contamination at this site.” 

     “Yet the (Chrin) operation continues, and DER still is considering a permit for expansion. This site is within a quarter mile of wells, streams, public water supplies, underground mines, quarries and the Lehigh Canal. It is not a site which would be chosen for a landfill, today. (Remember, reader, this is 1982.) One DER official described this site to me as a “chemical time bomb”. Yet the operation continues.”

      “In this case, we can see that our State regulators at DER are not simply enforcers of the law, but are policy makers. Politically, DER cannot close this landfill, since it is crucial to regional needs. If Chrin were to close, the garbage bills of the entire southern portion of Northampton County would immediately rise, to pay for transport to Grand Central, near Pen Argyl, or to Berks County. Nevertheless, there has been no mobilization of local government to meet this imminent dislocation. Palmer Township did pass a resolution commending the Chrin operation.” (By Joe DeRaymond, May 1982 New Valley Press) 

     Included with the article were two pages of copies of manifests and letters documenting the dumping of hazardous wastes at both Chrin and Grand Central landfills. There are letters from EPA which demand continued monitoring of the Chrin site, since it showed ervidence of aresenic, lead, chromium, cadmium and organic compounds including trichloromethane, tricholoroethene, and benzene. It is indentified as a site in need of remediation. At the time, we expected the Chrin landfill would become a Superfund site, which it did become.  There is an ongoing well and groundwater monitoring system in place, and the landfill will need to be monitored indefinitely. 

      These facts were all presented at public hearings and to DER and local officials, including Williams Township officials. The landfill expansion was approved in 1982. In the years since then, Charles Chrin has become a Palmer Township philanthropist developer, donating land and developing land to accommodate the influx of residents into the Lehigh Valley that occurred in the last 20 years.

      In my opinion, the Chrin Landfill site has reached the end of its life. It should be closed and the area around it monitored for leaching pollution in perpetuity. The people who live near it and the residents of Williams Township have absorbed the risks of storing the solid waste of the region for several generations, and it is time for another solution for the disposal of solid waste. It was time 25 years ago. – Joe DeRaymond