Consultant will view plan for Grand Central landfill expansion
Plans to expand the Grand Central landfill in Plainfield Township have moved along slowly more than six months after the landfill owner applied to rezone land across from its existing waste site. morning call file
By Anthony Salamone The Morning Call
Plans to grow Grand Central Sanitary Landfill continue to progress slowly, more than six months after its owner applied to rezone land for an expansion.
After months of meetings, Plainfield Township supervisors voted in April to hire a third-party consultant to review a request by WM, formerly Waste Management, to rezone more than 200 acres across from the landfill.The supervisors’ move comes despite the township planning commission’s 4-1 vote in March recommending against the rezoning because of concerns about environmental and health risks a new landfill could bring. In addition, the township’s comprehensive plan indicates a desire to preserve farmland, and rezoning farm and forest land to allow solid waste goes directly against that plan, according to some planners’ comments.
However, the vote does not preclude supervisors, who have the final, local say, from approving the change, according to township solicitor David Backenstoe.
“The board is taking a look at that [Grand Central] application and considering information from as many sources, including engaging an outside third party to look at doing the rezoning,” Backenstoe said last week.
The landfill owner applied last year to have 211 acres on Pen Argyl Road rezoned from farm and forest uses to solid waste processing and disposal. It also applied for a landfill to be included in the new zone as a permitted use.
At meetings, the effort has pitted residents who support the expansion against those against it. Opponents have fought previous expansion efforts — WM submitted a similar rezoning application in 2020 that supervisors chose not to send to the planning commission for review.
New supervisors have been elected since then and have indicated a more favorable opinion for the new rezoning request.
And the issue could play into the May 20 primary. Three Republicans are running for two open seats on the five-member board: incumbents Jonathan Frank Itterly and Ken Fairchild are seeking reelection, as is former Supervisor Jane Mellert, who has been a staunch opponent of landfill expansion. No Democrats are on the ballot.
Mellert has argued the landfill company’s effort to rezone land and create a district to collect garbage goes against a solid waste district on the current landfill site off Route 512 that supervisors approved in 1988 and upheld as recently as 2020.
The 1988 district, she has said, was well thought out with legal counsel, a planner and study group. It addressed Grand Central’s right to continue to operate, with room for past expansions, while also protecting residents from solid waste uses creeping into additional areas, she said.
Itterly, who was appointed in 2024 to the supervisor board, declined to comment on the proposed expansion or a possible board vote to hire an outside consultant in an email response to questions. However, he said he opposes the concept “of burying garbage as a waste solution.”
“It concerns me that despite the township receiving tens of millions of dollars from Waste Management over the past decade, we still lack basic public amenities that are common in other municipalities, even those without landfill revenue,” he said. He wants the township to focus more on community investment, particularly for the youth.
Fairchild, who also was appointed a supervisor following the 2023 municipal election, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He and Itterly joined in voting 3-2 last fall to send the expansion question to the planning commission.
Grand Central spokesperson Adrienne Fors said the company is awaiting supervisors’ next steps. She said the landfill has about 4½ years of disposal life left. Should the municipality vote favorably on the rezoning, it would set in motion moves to acquire the land it wants rezoned and file an expansion application with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, she said.
The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which reviewed the proposed landfill expansion, said in its report last fall that “significant adverse community impacts are unlikely due to the close proximity of the expansion area to existing operations.”
The regional planning commission also said any mitigation measures for natural resources on the site must be secured by permitting agencies, such as the DEP.
The rezoned area boundaries sought by Grand Central are Pen Argyl Road to the west, Delabole Road to the south, Bocce Club Road to the north, and a rail right-of-way to the east.
In existence since 1951, Grand Central is one of three landfills in the Lehigh Valley, all in Northampton County. Bethlehem Landfill in Lower Saucon Township — which also is seeking to expand — and Chrin in Williams Township are the others.
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.
