Court: Modern Landfill must disclose it sent 'forever chemical' wastewater to Harrisburg

In April 2023, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleging violations of the Clean Water Act prompted the owners of Modern Landfill to take measures to reduce the amount of what are known as “forever chemicals” into Kreutz Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River.

It was viewed as a victory for advocates of clean water and environmental protection.

But there was a loophole.

The operator of Modern Landfill, Republic Services, was shipping the waste removed from the water at the Windsor Township landfill and shipping it to Harrisburg’s Capital Region Water treatment plant, where it was discharged into the Susquehanna River, and to New Jersey.

From May 2023 through December 2023, according to a court document, Modern Landfill sent about six million gallons of the waste to the Harrisburg treatment plant.

The Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, as a continuation of a suit filed in January 2023 to stop the pollution, asked Republic to provide more information about the discharges and the water treatment plan.

Lawyers for Modern Landfill responded by producing documents showing that it had sent waste to the Harrisburg plant and to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission plant in New Jersey. The company, however, had labeled those documents “confidential” and “for attorneys’ eyes only,” meaning that lawyers representing the riverkeeper association were forbidden from disclosing the information in the documents to their client or to the public.

“It’s a scandal,” said Ted Evgeniadis, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. “It’s a freakin’ scandal. If I had known they were sending water to Harrisburg, I could have been testing it for the last year. But I didn’t know about it.”

He said, “This is information the public needed to know. They hid information from us. We need this information.”

What are PFAS?

It all started when Evgeniadis conducted testing in Kreutz Creek for PFAS, polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of thousands of chemicals used in hundreds of products that enter the food supply through agriculture and processing. The chemicals do not break down naturally and are called “forever chemicals.” His tests showed levels of the chemicals well above allowances set by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection.

The landfill installed a water treatment system to reduce the levels but, according to the lawsuit, continued to ship wastewater to the treatment plant in Harrisburg, which was ill-equipped to remove the chemicals and simply discharged the water into the river.

Previously: York County creek samples show highest levels of 'forever chemicals' in the country

Previously: Lawsuit filed alleging 'dangerous' levels of 'forever chemicals' in York County creek

When Evgeniadis sought information about the discharges in court, lawyers for Republic Services provided documents that were heavily redacted. U.S. Middle District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson ruled in January that the company had to remove the redactions. The company responded by removing the redactions and designating the documents as “confidential” and “for attorneys’ eyes only.”

The company argued that the information in the documents was “irrelevant to the current dispute,” according to court documents, an assertion that the judge had previously rejected. Attorneys for Republic further cited a potential “competitive disadvantage in business” as an argument for preventing public disclosure of the documents.

The company argued that “disclosure of the locations it utilizes for wastewater disposal would lead to ... actions against (Republic’s) vendors and result in their termination.” Such action, the company argued, would force Republic to seek other means of disposing of waste and “would take time and money and might result in more expensive vendors or a failure to find new vendors at all,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

Wilson rejected the arguments, writing that Republic “has not pointed to specific examples or articulated specific reasoning to show good cause to demonstrate why it is appropriate for the court to keep these documents designated confidential.”

The assertion that disclosure would cause hardship for Republic, the judge wrote, “is perfunctory, speculative, and provides no particulars.”

By sending the PFAS waste to Harrisburg, Evgeniadis said, it is discharged into a larger waterway than Kreutz Creek and is therefore diluted, reducing its levels in the water.

That is not a solution, he said.

“It’s like the wild West out here,” he said. The arrangement between Republic and Harrisburg is not illegal, he said, but “it very well should be.” Current regulations, he said, do not prevent Republic from transferring the chemical waste to another facility to be discharged into the Susquehanna.

“To make matters worse,” he said, “this arrangement was kept a big secret and was shielded from the public.”

A call to Modern Landfill for comment was not immediately returned.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Waste from Modern Landfill was put in the Susquehanna, court discloses