Avoca residents mobilizing against proposed solid waste transfer station

Avoca residents are mobilizing against a proposed solid waste transfer station off Pittston Avenue and Main Street, borough Council President Holly Homschek said Monday.

“We have so many concerns. The citizens are scared, and I don’t blame them because we’ve already been down this road,” Homschek said.

She was referring to cancer and other health problems experienced by tens of thousands of residents that were blamed on the Kerr-McGee Corp. creosote wood-treatment plant that had operated at the center of the one-square-mile borough for four decades, closing in 1996.

Kerr-McGee officials had regularly attended borough municipal meetings assuring residents the operation was environmentally safe, officials have said.

Homschek said she’s talked to many residents prepared to show their opposition to the transfer station at an upcoming Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board hearing on the matter. Their resistance is amplified “because they’ve been lied to before,” she said.

“People are petrified to have something like this here,” Homschek said of the transfer station plan. “They’re still traumatized from Kerr-McGee and all the sickness that went on in this town.”

Proposal

Big Rocks LLC, headed by John Terrana, of Wyoming borough, is seeking a special exception to operate a construction and demolition solid waste transfer station on 4- to 5 acres and build an 11,975-square-foot structure on land in a light industrial district zone.

The matter is before the county Zoning Hearing Board because Avoca is among the municipalities that had opted to have the county handle their zoning.

The public hearing is at 7 p.m. Sept. 3 in the second-floor jury meeting room at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Terrana said Monday he has no comment at this time but may release a statement at some point.

According to county information on his special exception application:

Big Rocks LLC is an equitable owner of the project site under a June sales agreement. The parcel is currently owned by RJ Stella Mineral Realty LLC in Plains Township and used as a coal mining operation.

The county’s zoning ordinance, adopted in 2021, lists a solid waste facility as a possible special exception use in a light industrial district zone.

Under the ordinance definition, a solid waste facility must comply with state laws governing management, processing, treatment, storage, transfer and/or disposal of solid waste.

Big Rocks intends to operate a station that accepts solid waste — including wood, metal and construction debris — and transfer the waste “that same day” to larger landfills. It emphasized this station will not accept “putrescible” waste liable to decay, such as food waste.

The company intends to provide testimony from fact witnesses and expert witnesses to support that:

• Public services and facilities shall be adequate for the proposed use.

• Existing/future streets and site access shall be adequate for emergency services, to avoid undue congestion and provide for the safety and convenience of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

• The relationship of the proposed use/development to other existing and planned uses and activities in the vicinity shall be “harmonious” in terms of the location and “nature and intensity of the operation involved.”

• The character and height of the buildings, walls and fences also will be “harmonious” so the “use, development and value of the adjacent property is not impaired.”

• The proposed use/development “shall not be more objectionable in its operation in terms of noise, fumes, odors, vibrations or lights than would be the operations of any permitted use in the district.”

• The proposed use/development “shall not be injurious to the public interest.”

Concerns

Homschek rattled off a long list of reasons why a transfer station should not be in the borough, including the environmental impact.

For example, she cited the danger of runoff into Mill Creek and the possibility waste accepted there will contain asbestos or other harmful material.

The operation also would dominate the tiny borough and increase truck traffic in the borough and neighboring municipalities, she said.

“It’s not something positive. I have no issue trying to advance the town, but not with anything involving waste and environmental issues,” she said.

Because the special exception decision is in the county Zoning Hearing Board’s hands, borough officials have no voting authority in the matter, she said.

“The only way we have to fight this is as a community, and I expect a very large showing,” she said.

A town hall meeting is in the works, possibly next week, to inform residents, she said.

Homschek said she was engrossed in research Monday and has started public outreach because she doesn’t want residents in the dark as they were for an auto auction business expansion in Duryea last year.

“I don’t want anyone to think we didn’t try to stop this,” she said.

Reporter Margaret Roarty contributed to this story.