Recently a local waste hauler, United Sanitation Network, inc. along with other partners including Waveco Energy Services, delivered plans for a DEP permit and made requests for a Luzerne County variance to build a industrial waste (frack) fluid disposal and recycling site in Lake Township. Never mind that the application was deficient and misleading in so many ways. Discrepancies from starting up with 30, 20,000 gallon tanks on site to 60 tanks, hours of operation going from 13 hours per day to round the clock 24/7 operations and amateurish methods of collecting toxic spills with buckets, left a lot to be desired.
Kudos to our Luzerne county council for pointing out and expressing strong opposition to the county zoning board, their concerns about the local environment, traffic safety, potential for serious accidents, and how this would negatively affect the quality-of-life for Luzerne county residents.
We elected a county council to make it harder to continue past corrupt county decision-making practices, and they took an oath to protect our health, safety and welfare. Councilman Bobeck was in disagreement with expressing the council reservations to the zoning board, and although he gave his reasons( with which I disagree), he at least presented his rationale for his decision. Mr. Brominski on the other hand, would not agree with counsel to send the letter voicing opposition to the hazardous waste site and gave no valid reason for his stance against this resolution that would help improve the quality of life for Luzerne County residents.
Let’s be honest, drilling, fracking, extraction, transportation and processing of the Marcellus Shale gas with its ancillary industrial facilities such as compressor and dehydration stations, pipelines and toxic waste discharge problems, is a dirty practice with negative environmental and health consequences. Just ask the people living near the Chapin dehydration station, what negative effects they have experienced both in quality-of-life issues and property value decreases. The chemicals involved in fracking and the waste disposal products are known human carcinogens and have the potential for serious negative health consequences. These industrial facilities should not be allowed near any residential homes, near streams, rivers or wetlands feeding our water supplies nor should they be allowed to spout fumes that degrade our air-quality over the Wyoming Valley. The huge toxic water trucks hauling radioactive, hazardous waste should not be traveling our quaint narrow rural roads alongside our school buses and degrading our roads and bridges. We all pay the price for increased incidence of leukemias and other cancers, neurological problems, and increased asthma and breathing issues with a poorer quality-of-life and higher health costs.
Let’s give thanks to the overwhelming majority of county council members who spoke up to keep these industrial facilities out of Luzerne county and agreed to help safeguard our health and properties. The people of Luzerne county came out to speak at these meetings and the council listened. Let’s put the DEP and the county zoning board on notice that we live in a democracy and the people will decide what we want for our county.
