Berks loses lawsuit against landfill expansion 
Sharon Spohn, sspohn@pottsmerc.com   03/02/2006

EXETER -- A state court has rejected Berks County’s appeal of the Pioneer Crossing landfill expansion proposal. 


In a 42-page opinion, Common-wealth Court found the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Harms/Benefit Analysis was properly conducted, upholding the issuance of the landfill’s expansion permit.

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Pioneer Cr-ossing Land-fill, located off Route 422 in Exeter near the Birdsboro line, submitted an application to expand the 92-acre facility by 67 acres in July 2000. The DEP approved the expansion in May 2002.

The expansion will provide another 18 to 20 years of disposal capacity and allows the landfill to increase the height of the landfill by 15 more feet.

"The DEP’s Harms/Benefit review of our expansion application was comprehensive and thorough and the department considered all of the competing interests before concluding that Pioneer Crossing had met its regulatory burden," William Fox, the lawyer for Pioneer Crossing Landfill, said in a written statement. "

Two reviewing bodies, the environmental hearing board and the Commonwealth Court, have found that DEP acted appropriately in granting the expansion permit to Pioneer Crossing. We earned the permit we received and we are extremely pleased with the Commonwealth Court’s decision."

In its appeal, Berks County argued that the DEP did not properly conduct the Harms/Benefit Analysis and that the DEP was wrong in approving the landfill expansion permit.

Berks County commissioners’ Chairwoman Judy Schwank said she had not seen the opinion when contacted for comment.

"It’s unfortunate. There’s folks in that community whose quality of life is impacted by that landfill," Schwank said, adding that she’d reserve any other comment until after she reviewed the court’s opinion.

Berks County appealed the expansion permit decision to the environmental hearing board and then to the Commonwealth Court. 



©The Mercury 2006