Pennsylvania

Hazelton Dredge Spoils Dumping

Clean Water Action is working with citizen groups and State Representative Todd Eachus to prevent developers from using dredge spoils from river and harbor deepening projects in PA, NJ, NY and MD to fill in an abandoned mine pit in the City of Hazleton. After the closing of the mine in the 1940s, the City had used the property as a landfill. While there is no comprehensive list of what was dumped there, industrial electrical capacitors have been removed from the site, leading people to wonder if other, potentially hazardous items remain underground.

Concern also centers on:

  1. what substances may be included in the dredge spoils that would be dumped there, including PCBs and heavy metals, and,
  2. the testing protocol for the dredge material which requires only one in every 100 truck-loads and one every 67 railcar loads be tested for contaminants.

Clean Water Action helped turn out over 200 people for a public meeting on the issue in 2005 and in 2006, Clean Water Action canvassers have found strong support among residents in surrounding communities to get their own municipal officials to urge Hazleton City Council to oppose the plan.

What you can do
If you are from the Hazleton Area, write to the Hazleton City Council
Hazleton City Hall
40 N. Church St.
Hazleton, PA 18201
and urge them not to permit the dumping of dredge spoils in the City.