On October 9th, 2024, residents of Yukon, PA and surrounding communities gathered for a listening session hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the MAX Environmental (MAX) hazardous waste landfill.
Located in South Huntingdon township, MAX is the only facility in Pennsylvania that offers RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) Subtitle C permitted waste treatment and on-site commercial disposal of residual waste. The facility’s residual waste landfill is permitted to accept a range of materials from energy, construction, and manufacturing industries, as well as metal contaminated waste site cleanups, including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, lead, oil and gas drilling wastes, and more.
The forty year old facility has a legacy of violations and noncompliance, impacting nearby groundwater reserves, soil, and exceeding their regulatory limits of hazardous elements such as cadmium, lead, and zinc into Sewickley creek. MAX has been subject to two consent orders in the past 18 months, after EPA investigators identified dozens of violations at the facility. The most recent was published in September 2024 and outlined ongoing concerns with water pollution around the facility, including 20 permit exceedances from January 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023, not using the PH adjustment tank or neutralization tank, insufficient infrastructure, failure to monitor continuously for flow and pH, and lack of training on pollution prevention and emergency response operations. (Review the Consent Orders and Other Notice of Violations)
The listening session followed the issuance of this consent order and was the result of a letter drafted by residents and a petition that gained over 550 signatures that urged more action from the EPA.
The petition explicitly requests that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection work together to:
- Please require MAX Environmental to cease accepting new wastes until it can address all the outstanding violations.
- Please require MAX Environmental with the support of EPA and PA DEP to sample Landfill 6 and other locations throughout the facility where improperly treated hazardous waste may have been stored or deposited.
- Please create and share a long-term plan to hold this errant facility accountable and to develop remediation and shut-down plans and share with the community and local stakeholders. This must be well thought out and include full remediation of the site.
- Effectively shut down MAX Environmental once previously mentioned steps have been completed.
- EPA should provide monthly updates to community and local stakeholders on the status of the consent order.
- Monthly updates on consent order and what has been done to come into compliance. Should come from the EPA and DEP to the host municipality (South Huntingdon), community, and Mountain Watershed.
The meeting, held virtually and streamed at the Yukon firehall by MWA, allowed residents to speak directly to EPA personnel about their ongoing concerns and reiterate their requests that the federal agency do more to develop an adequate closure plan for the facility that holds the company accountable. Also in attendance was PA DEP, representatives from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and a toxicologist from the Department of Health (DOH), who gave a presentation on the pathways harmful substances can travel through air, water, and soil, and representatives from.
Residents spoke directly about health issues they had been experiencing for decades, citing headaches, respiratory irritation, cancers, and the premature deaths of family pets. Speakers also expressed concern about the degradation of the environment and how this could impact tourism in downstream areas which heavily rely on income from outdoor recreation. The community was adamant that MAX cannot be allowed to get off with a slap on the wrists and must be held accountable for their legacy of pollution and harm in the Yukon area.
The issues at MAX have been making headlines in recent years, attracting interest from media and state legislators, thanks to the hard work and unyielding dedication of impacted local residents to ensure that MAX is held accountable for decades of pollution.
This most recent listening session is only a step in the process, and more work still needs to be done to ensure that all parties remain engaged and active on this issue. MWA hosts monthly meetings to provide updates to the community and interested stakeholders on the third Thursday of each month at the Yukon Volunteer Fire Hall.
If you have questions, or would like to get involved in the campaign against pollution in Yukon, please contact stacey@mtwatershed.com.