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Disputed Rostraver Township landfill gets new owner

By Pat Cloonan pcloonan@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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A Rostraver Township landfill has had new ownership since November, according to a partner in the Uniontown area company that bought it.

“Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill was purchased by Noble Environmental, Inc. in November 2016,” according to an email sent by Nick Stark, who introduced himself last week as a co-owner of the company based near Uniontown in Georges Township. “Noble is a local company that is working vigorously to improve the landfill, its infrastructure and standing within the community.”

That news apparently hadn’t come to the attention of Rostraver officials, who said at last week’s board of commissioners meeting that they want to know more about who is running the landfill along Conner Lane.

That landfill has drawn the ire of neighbors before, an anger raised anew by multiple notices of state violations since December.

“Over the past year I have become very concerned about our landfill,” said Cheryl L. Myers, who lives near what still is listed in state records as Tervita Sanitary Landfill.

“There were violations that started around December 2016,” Myers went on, after handing out copies of a state Department of Environmental Protection document. “Some of these violations in the past 60 days have been quite significant.”

They’re not being enforced — for now.

“DEP continues to investigate violations regarding waste solidification by Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill LLC,” DEP Southwest Regional Community Relations Coordinator Lauren Fraley said. “The department is currently considering appropriate enforcement action against the company for violations (Dec. 2016 to present) but DEP has not taken action at this time.”

Meanwhile, the topography of the landfill has come into question.

“Additionally, while DEP has no evidence at this time that slopes are unstable at the facility, the department, as a precaution, has requested — and the landfill has agreed to perform — an analysis of slope stability,” Fraley said.

The state eFACTSweb document started out listing the 47,568.2 tons of waste brought to the Rostraver-based landfill in the fourth quarter of 2016. According to a DEP listing of landfills across Pennsylvania, the Rostraver entity has an average daily volume of 2,000 tons and a maximum of 2,500 tons.

Myers was among several residents in attendance concerned about the 292.5-acre landfill. Another was Jack Kruell, who pointed to two incidents involving runoff from catch basins.

“Access road fails to prevent erosion to the maximum extent possible or contributes to sediment to streams or runoff outside the site,” said the first of 11 violations found during inspections on Dec. 23, 2016, as well as Jan. 12, Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.

The nearest stream is a tributary of Speers Run, which empties into the Monongahela River alongside the bridge carrying Interstate 70 from Speers into North Belle Vernon.

A Jan. 12 inspection turned up “failure to comply with the plans and specifications in the permit, the terms and conditions of the permit, the environmental protection acts, this title or orders issued by the (DEP).”

That violation allegedly was found again Jan. 31, when DEP inspectors found “(the) leachate collection system within the protective cover fails to meet performance standards” and that “disposal of specialty handling waste or residual waste (took place) without (DEP) approval.”

More violations were noted after a Feb. 2 visit, including an allegation that the Solid Waste Management Act 97 of 1980 was being violated and that someone “refuses, hinders, obstructs, or threatens an agent of (the) commonwealth.”

The Act 97 allegation went along with two statements that the landfill “handles solid waste contrary to rules and regulations, or orders of the (DEP) or any permit condition, or in any manner as to create a public nuisance.”

Meanwhile, for those in attendance at last week’s Rostraver board meeting, the question of ownership of the landfill remained a mystery.

“I assure you, we will get answers for you,” board Chairman Gary N. Beck Sr. promised Myers and other concerned residents at that meeting.

That promise was echoed by state Rep. Justin Walsh, R-Rostraver, who was in attendance at last Wednesday’s meeting.

According to records obtained from the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds, a deed was dated on Feb. 9, 2015, and filed a month later in which Tervita Inc., formerly known as CCS Midstream Services LLC, a Louisiana company having its principal place of business in Houston, Texas, was granting the landfill property for $100,000 to Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill LLC, a Pennsylvania company having its principal place of business in Calgary, Alberta.

However, the address in Calgary is that for Tervita, a successor company to Canadian Crude Separators, or CCS, which was established in 1984 and became a publicly traded company in 1993, according to a history on Tervita’s website.

CCS was converted to a private corporation in 2007 and in 2009 its United States operation, CCS Midstream Services, was created to offer the CCS portfolio of services to the American oil and gas industry.

CCS Corporation and 12 related companies came together as Tervita in 2012 with the stated purpose “to better serve customers as a leading provider of environmental and energy services in North America.”

Last week, a few hours before the commissioners’ meeting, a Uniform Construction Code or UCC financing statement was filed with the Recorder of Deeds office by a Pittsburgh law firm on behalf of Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill LLC, listed as “debtor” with an address of 2195 Morgantown Road, Georges Township, a Uniontown postal address, and the Northwest Bank branch in Bellevue, just outside Pittsburgh, listed as “secured party.”

That Georges address is home to Noble Environmental Inc. No actual deed had been filed as of Tuesday on the Recorder of Deeds website.

Stark did not address the eFACTSweb report but expressed optimism for his company’s new role running the Conner Lane facility.

“It is an opportunity we are very excited about,” Stark wrote in his email. “We look forward to continuing to improve the landfill and its operations.”

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