The state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection has postponed next week’s public hearing on Blythe Recycling and Demolition Site (BRADS) Landfill’s request to make truck-hauling its leachate a permanent, permit-approved practice, the agency announced Friday.
The hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Saint Clair Area School District building, with DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice coordinating. DEP said Friday that the hearing “will be rescheduled for a later date” and that notifications will go out once a new date is set.
Residents with questions can still reach Maria Tavera Vilchis, DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice Northeast regional coordinator, at 717-772-4051 or mtaveravil@pa.gov.
The hearing concerns a Major Permit Modification filed by BRADS Landfill, located on Burma Rd. in Blythe Township. DEP accepted the application in late May.
Leachate – the liquid produced as rain and snowmelt pass through buried waste – has been trucked off-site from BRADS since the landfill opened in 2019, with the company reporting more than 51 million gallons hauled in roughly 9,275 loads. The pending application would make hauling the landfill’s approved primary disposal method for the life of the site rather than a temporary arrangement pending a pipeline connection to the Schuylkill Valley Sewer Authority. BRADS finished building that pipeline in December, but no agreement with SVSA has followed.
The request leans on Act 45 of 2015, a state law that removed earlier time limits and treatment requirements that had restricted leachate hauling to a short-term stopgap measure.
The landfill’s permit renewal, approved by DEP earlier this year, allows BRADS to keep operating through January 2035. That renewal followed a 2024 public hearing and came alongside a consent order this Spring resolving violations tied to odor, litter and leachate management, which carried a $96,525 penalty.
Saint Clair has appealed the renewal to the state’s Environmental Hearing Board, and the landfill continues to face odor complaints along with a separate, still-pending request to double its daily waste intake.
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