Berks weighs options after landfill expansion ruling 
Sharon Spohn, sspohn@pottsmerc.com  03/07/2006

READING -- The Berks County commissioners have 30 days to decide whether to appeal a Commonwealth Court decision on the Pioneer Crossing Landfill expansion. 


Republican Commissioner Mark Scott said Thursday that he had not yet seen the court opinion, but the commissioners need to meet with the legal advisers to decide if a Supreme Court appeal is warranted.


Scott said case law might offer hope to the county to overturn the Commonwealth Court ruling.

"It might be a worthwhile appeal," Scott said.

An October 2005 appeal by Eagle Environmental to the state Supreme Court resulted in the court upholding the state Department of Environmental Protection regulations that require landfill operators to show that proposed landfill construction or expansions will generate social and economic benefits that clearly outweigh the potential environmental harms.

The county appealed the approval of the expansion of the Pioneer Crossing Landfill by 67 acres, saying the DEP did not prove the benefits outweighed the potential harms.

A state court rejected the county’s appeal in a 42-page opinion which found the DEP’s harms/benefit analysis was properly conducted.

Pioneer Crossing Landfill, off Route 422 in Exeter, applied to the DEP to expand the 92-acre landfill in 2000. The DEP approved the expansion in May 2002. 



©The Mercury 2006