NEW CASTLE, PA. Official: Delay landfill review

The planning director wants to take a detailed look at the plans before the commission acts on it.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Plans for a proposed residual waste landfill near McConnell's Mill State Park are moving forward, but some Lawrence County officials hope to slow it down.
The Lawrence County planning director is asking the Slippery Rock Township Planning Commission to delay its review of the proposed landfill. The township planners are meeting Monday.
The plan calls for a residual waste landfill on about 50 acres of land near McConnell's Mill State Park and the Slippery Rock Creek.
Sechan Limestone Industries of Portersville is the landfill developer.
Submitted for review: Sechan spokesman Dave Mashek said site plans were given to Slippery Rock and Lawrence County for engineering review. He said the company must give both entities the opportunity to comment on those plans before a landfill application is submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Sechan will submit its DEP landfill application sometime in early May, Mashek said.
The same engineering plans -- which include information about how the site will handle its facilities and waste -- will be sent to planners in Butler County and Muddy Creed Township for review in the next month, he said.
Needs time: Mashek said Sechan representatives will attend Monday's planning meeting in Slippery Rock Township to answer any questions. County planning director James Gagliano said he wants to take a detailed look at the plans before Slippery Rock planners approve or deny them. He sent Slippery Rock officials a letter Thursday asking them to delay acting.
Gagliano said state planning code allows municipalities up to 90 days for land use plan reviews.
The proposed landfill has met with public opposition from residents, park supporters and some elected officials in both Lawrence and Butler counties. Opponents say they fear the landfill waste will harm the park and the creek, which supplies water to the southern end of Lawrence County.
Sechan Industries owner Robert Sechan Jr. of Muddy Creek Township owned another company in the mid-1980s that was fined $100,000 for allowing waste from a hazardous waste landfill seep into the Slippery Rock Creek.
Mashek said the proposed landfill would not contain hazardous or municipal solid waste, but residual waste.
Residual waste landfills accept things such as paint, contaminated dirt and pesticides.