EASTON, Pa. — Hearings started Thursday to determine whether eight people and several local institutions have the right to sue Bethlehem Landfill and Lower Saucon Township in a proceeding that could block the landfill’s expansion.
The group, made up of eight township residents plus St. Luke’s Anderson Campus hospital, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and Bethlehem Township, is asking the court to revive conservation easements protecting about 200 acres in Lower Saucon Township.
The township council’s vote last year to void the two easements, the lawsuit argues, is essentially meaningless because they lack the authority to remove them.
If brought back into force, the easements would prevent a planned 86-acre expansion of the Bethlehem Landfill.
However, landfill’s attorneys led by Maryanne Starr Garber argued in filings that none of the plaintiffs nor intervenors met the threshold to be able to sue.
Thursday’s often-testy hearing to evaluate that question moved slowly. Judge Abraham Kassis again and again admonished lawyers for both sides to stick to the narrow question of standing.
“We have a very limited purpose today,” he said. “We want to cut to the chase.”
'Interest in a safe environment'
After Bruce Petrie, a plaintiff who lives near the landfill, testified for more than an hour, attorneys for both sides agreed that testimony from other residents in the suit would be similar enough to be unnecessary.
If the landfill expands toward his property, Petrie said, he will experience more of the unpleasant smells and wandering vultures he attributes to its current operations.
“The expansion of the landfill and the removal of the conservation easement breaks the covenant that the township made with the public.”Attorney Gary Asteak, representing eight plaintiffs
St. Luke’s Anderson Campus President Edward Nawrocki told the court that the landfill expansion, and the sights and smells that come with it, make it a less appealing place for both patients and prospective employees.
“Patient care will be affected," Nawrocki said. "It will be harder to recruit doctors and nurses. They judge us on that.”
Because Medicare reimbursement rates are tied to results from a survey gauging patient satisfaction, he said, the fate of the easements could affect the hospital financially.
After the hearing, attorney Gary Asteak, representing the eight township residents involved in the lawsuit, said the issue of standing is simple.
“As taxpayers and residents and those who live close by the landfill, they have an interest in a safe environment,” Asteak said of his clients.
“The expansion of the landfill and the removal of the conservation easement breaks the covenant that the township made with the public.”
Garber declined to comment Thursday.
Two additional witnesses, testifying on behalf of Bethlehem Township and the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, will take the stand when the hearing resumes Sept. 13.
