This opinion piece was submitted by a resident of the community.
Trash stinks. Anyone knows that. So of course, acres of trash piled up for decomposition has an odor that necessarily goes with it. Make some fish for dinner and you know what your trash will smell like. Now imagine if all your neighbors put their trash in the same place…
Countless Lower Saucon Council meetings have wasted time complaining about a well-known fact: that piles of garbage stink. We all know this. And it’s why we regularly (weekly) take out piles of stinking garbage for someone else to deal with.
Bethlehem Landfill is an easy target for people to blame. And the current council majority has continually tried to blame the evil landfill for the ‘destruction’ of the community. Truth is, I don’t really smell the landfill – having lived in the Township most of my life. Then again, I didn’t choose to reside next to acres of trash.
Just recently, according to a LehighValleyNews article, “Pa. DEP identifies source of foul-smelling odor that’s stinking up Bethlehem, surrounding areas.” And no, it wasn’t the landfill.
Back in 2018, The Morning Call reported that, “Bethlehem area couple blamed landfill for horrific stench. But lawyers say homeowners mistook the culprit.” In this case, a local family found a law firm to file a lawsuit on their behalf (and for 8,400 nearby households).
But in this case – during her deposition, the lead plaintiff revealed that she had identified the Bethlehem Wastewater Treatment Plant as the source of the smell, not the landfill. She voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit at that point.
And here we are some six years later, with the same tired methods of disrupting what is otherwise a highly regulated, well-run, and neighborly business. Organized odor complaints, harassment and ‘know-it-all’ questions at the various local committee meetings, and conflicts-of-interest based on property ownership of family members. Sad.
How many people “smell” something and like the clueless plaintiff above, blame the wrong culprit? And what’s been done about the sewage being dumped directly into the Lehigh River?
What we should keep in perspective is just how little odor (and inconvenience) is generated by the truly mind-blowing volume of trash that is piled there. The engineering and thought that goes into an operation that large is amazing and their safety record speaks for itself. Sure, they have odor complaints. It’s a huge pile of trash. But that trash – that you and I both put out weekly – must go somewhere.
At least we get something in exchange – in the form of payment covering nearly 1/3 of our local expenses. And that’s a good deal considering that the landfill has been here longer than all of us – to continue to get that return on the land helps maintain low taxes for us all. And those benefits extend to their newly launched efforts of reclaimed energy through landfill gas collection and conversion – which benefits local businesses and residents alike.