The state Department of Environmental Protection temporarily extended Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s expiring operating permit for a second time Monday, giving the agency additional time to monitor the landfill’s odor controls and reevaluate a harms-benefits analysis.

The DEP announced Tuesday morning that it issued a 15-month temporary extension of the landfill’s operating permit until Dec. 31, 2026. The operating permit for the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill in Dunmore and Throop was initially set to expire April 6, but two days prior to its expiration, the DEP granted a six-month extension through Oct. 6. In both instances, the department attributed the extensions to an April 1 ruling from the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, or EHB, that remanded the landfill’s controversial Phase III expansion approval back to the DEP over odor and excessive leachate issues.

The DEP originally granted the landfill’s decadeslong expansion June 3, 2021, giving Keystone the capacity to triple its volume of waste into the 2060s by adding 94 million tons of garbage, or about 188 billion pounds.

The DEP has not approved other operation or construction changes, according to the news release.

“This extension will allow review and oversight of the odor control corrective measures recently completed at the landfill, so we can ensure that the community is not adversely affected by odors from the facility,” DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley said in a statement Tuesday. “DEP is focused on removing stray odors, ensuring the environment around the landfill is protected, and protecting quality of life for the community. DEP is extending the current permit so we have the time to consider the permit renewal application and can ensure that DEP is providing the best possible oversight of this facility.”

Operating permits normally expire after 10 years, but the EHB’s decision in April upended that timeline when a panel of five judges determined that the department had erred by approving the landfill’s 42.4-year Phase III expansion despite knowing it had issues with producing too much leachate and managing its odors. Leachate is the liquid that percolates through piles of garbage.

“The Department must assess on remand whether additional measures to control odors and leachate … warrant inclusion in the landfill’s permit or changes to the landfill’s operating plans,” the judges wrote in the decision.

As a primary remedy to control odors from its leachate lagoons, Keystone began using two 2.5-million-gallon enclosed leachate storage tanks in September, along with an odor control system for its leachate treatment plant, according to the DEP.

“KSL has also implemented numerous leachate generation minimization measures at the facility, and while KSL has been in compliance with DEP’s leachate storage regulations since these measures were implemented, this additional time will enable the department to confirm that this concern is addressed,” the agency said in the news release. “DEP will consider these mitigation measures in the review of the permit renewal application.”

The department said Tuesday it also granted the extension to give itself time to evaluate the landfill’s Sept. 17 response to its July 18 technical deficiency letter, as well as any additional deficiencies the DEP may identify during its review.

A letter sent Monday from Roger Bellas, the program manager at DEP’s Waste Management Program, to landfill Site Manager Dominic DeNaples Jr. expands on the news release. Beyond giving the DEP more time to evaluate the landfill’s Sept. 17 response, it gives the landfill time to respond to any additional deficiencies the DEP may identify, Bellas wrote. Bellas also references the EHB’s decision, writing that the remand required the DEP to consider whether additional conditions or modifications to the landfill’s Phase III permit modification or operating plans are necessary to further control and mitigate offsite odors and excess leachate generation.

With the implementation of the leachate storage tanks in September, the DEP needs sufficient time to determine if the odor mitigation measures have fully mitigated the offsite odor concerns and to reevaluate its harms-benefits analysis of the landfill’s expansion, according to Bellas.

The EHB’s April ruling was critical of Bellas’ role in the 2019 harms-benefits analysis, which ultimately concluded that the expansion’s benefits “clearly outweigh the known and potential harms.”

In its ruling, the EHB’s judges wrote that Erika Bloxham, a facility specialist in the DEP’s waste management program in the Northeast region who was tasked with completing the analysis, concluded that the benefits did not outweigh the harms, primarily because, in her opinion, Keystone had not mitigated the excess leachate production to the fullest extent possible.

“However, Ms. Bloxham’s supervisor, Roger Bellas, the waste program manager for the Northeast region, disagreed and authored the conclusion of the analysis for the Department,” the judges wrote.

In a message Tuesday, Dunmore Council President Janet Brier contended the DEP “should not grant an extension until the daily odor problem is eliminated.”

Councilwoman Katherine Mackrell Oven said she’s glad the DEP is taking time to look closely at the EHB’s ruling, rather than simply issuing a new permit.

“Our communities have lived with the landfill’s impacts for years, and residents deserve a decision that fully protects their health, environment and quality of life,” she said.

Pat Clark, a leader of grassroots landfill opposition group Friends of Lackawanna, called it a positive step for the DEP to update its harms-benefits analysis, and he commended Shirley as DEP secretary for being willing to “take a clean look” at the landfill and heeding the guidance and instruction of the EHB. Friends of Lackawanna appealed the Phase III expansion in July 2021, bringing the case in front of the environmental judges.

Clark hopes the DEP shuts down the landfill when it makes a determination in 15 months.

“As we’ve been saying for years now, once all of the known harms are properly considered, which the board indicates they now have to consider, the conclusion is going to be pretty clear that the benefits simply don’t clearly outweigh the harms on our community,” Clark said. “When they conclude that, the logical result is that finding should mark the beginning of the end of this operation that’s been burdening this area for far too long.”

Clark said he has no faith that the landfill’s odors and leachate will be controlled.

“There’s no way to conclude that this stuff is going to work this time, because it hasn’t worked at all for over a decade,” he said. “And as the landfill gets bigger, it is perfectly logical, if not inescapable, to conclude that it’s going to keep happening and most likely get worse.”

Attempts to reach landfill consultant Al Magnotta were unsuccessful.

The DEP concluded its letter to the landfill Monday by cautioning, “If the terms of the permit extension are not complied with, it is not guaranteed that this permit term will be extended again,” Bellas wrote. “In that event, KSL may have to prepare to cease all operations at the site and commence closure activities.”

DEP staff will continue to address odor complaints related to the landfill, the agency said in its news release. To file a complaint with the DEP by phone, call the Northeast Regional Office’s main line at 570-826-2511. To file a complaint online, visit greenport.pa.gov/obPublic/EnvironmentalComplaintForm/.

Originally Published: October 7, 2025 at 12:58 PM EDT