HARRISBURG – The Environmental Quality Board voted unanimously to provide the highest environmental protections to Pine Run in Chest Township by designating it an “exceptional value” stream.
According to state Rep. Camille “Bud” George, “Upgrading Pine Run to exceptional value means its water quality must be maintained and protected with no ifs, ands or buts.”
An EQB member, he said, “The state Department of Environmental Protection must ensure that Pine Run’s water quality will not be degraded before a permit for any activity, including a landfill, is issued.”
George said that the effort to provide greater protections to Pine Run is part of the two-decade fight citizens have mounted against the residual-waste landfill proposed near Pine Run.
“With the change to exceptional quality, no opportunity exists for someone to try to justify lowering the water quality of Pine Run,” said George, noting that the classification change becomes effective upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
The Chest Township supervisors presented a petition to the DEP on June 1, 2001, to boost the stream’s classification to exceptional value from its status as a cold water fishery. A DEP study of the stream revealed optimal habitat for aquatic life and populations of native brook trout.
The exceptional value designation affects about 6.85 miles of the Westover-area stream, which is a tributary of Chest Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
George said the EQB action is the latest in a string of successes for landfill foes and the Chest Township Concerned Citizens Against Landfill.
In August, the DEP voided the permit sought to build a landfill about two miles from Route 36 that would accept as much as 2,500 tons of residual waste a day on 677 acres.
In tossing the permit, the DEP said that the landfill developer failed to comply with the construction schedule listed in the permit issued by the Ridge administration in 2001. The permit was approved even after the original application was denied in 1996 because of deficiencies dealing with bedrock fracturing, ground settlement and coal-related concerns.
Landfill foes also scored an important legal victory last year when the state Supreme Court upheld the state’s harms vs. benefits test that maintains that social and economic benefits from a new or expanded landfill must clearly outweigh known and potential environmental harms.
Although the company that originally sought the landfill permit was sold this year, another company has expressed interest in resurrecting the permit process for the landfill.
“We keep winning battle after battle in this fight against the landfill,” Rep. George said. “I just wish we could find the magic bullet that kills it once and for all.”