With a deadline looming, Pottstown officials scrambled Jan. 10 to file an objection to a determination by the Federal Aviation Administration that making the Pottstown Landfill 100 feet higher would not adversely affect the operation of the Pottstown Municipal Airport. Three days later, Borough Council retroactively approved that action.
The deadline was set by a branch of the FAA, which on Dec. 13 alerted the manager of the Pottstown Landfill to the results of a study of the issue.
The study concluded that the proposed 99-foot increase in the height of the landfill’s 51-acre eastern expansion area "would have no substantial adverse effect on the safe and efficient" use of the airport.
While that was good news for landfill manager John Wardzinski, borough officials didn’t share his rosy view of the study’s result -- particularly because they didn’t know about it.
It wasn’t until Jan. 9, when The Mercury published a story about the fast-approaching deadline for commenting on the FAA’s determination, that borough officials found out.
They would be the first to say they weren’t happy.
With the objection deadline set for Jan. 12, a Sunday, officials had one day to assemble their reasons and get them off before the end of business on Friday.
They did.
Letters were sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the manager of the eastern division of the FAA’s airspace branch.
Primary among the borough’s objections is the fact that in the past year, the borough has spent more than $700,000, at the FAA’s request, to remove trees and other obstructions near the airport’s flight path.
Now the FAA, which once opposed the lower expansion on which this higher mountain of trash will be piled, has said a much larger and higher obstruction is acceptable, said Borough Council President Jack Wolf. full story
Excerpts taken from The Pottstown Mercury
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By any plausible analysis, the Pottstown Landfill has served as an effective conduit for radioactive waste generators to creatively disperse and transmit radiation to the residents of Pottstown and surrounding communities.
The Waste Management facility has done an outstanding job of unloading industry's nuclear burden, and allowing various forms of radiation to waft through the air, percolate into the soil, and seep into the water supply.
Now that the landfill is a de facto radioactive waste dump, minus the license, Waste Management would like to formalize its commitment to local radioactive waste generators that are desperately running out of time and space. Current laws make it occasionally difficult for Pottstown Landfill to openly accept this waste.
This presents a quandary for Waste Management, which has thus proposed an age-old solution - "The rules don't work for us, so why don't we change the rules?"
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection seems eager to help and, following the example of federal so-called "regulatory' agencies, deems it appropriate to devote its bureaucratic, financial and intellectual resources to answering the question "How much radioactive waste can we allow to be released?" full story
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Radioactive wastes from the nuclear power and nuclear weapons are being released into the general materials recycling stream and used to make everyday household items, building materials, and more. There is no limit on what nuclear waste can go into—frying pans, belt buckles, dental braces, hip replacement joints, tableware, toys, cosmetics, gardening soil, bedsprings, seats, furniture, cars, building supplies, jewelry, basements, buildings, playgrounds.
Rather than prohibiting and preventing nuclear waste from getting into the marketplace and daily-use items, ‘standards’ are being developed to dramatically increase and legalize the amount of radioactivity dispersed into the marketplace.
The potential impact on public health is enormous because there is no safe level of exposure to ionizing radiation. Low-level radiation damages tissues, cells, DNA and other vital molecules. full story

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    Hall of Fame:
Pottstown Mayor Anne Jones has worked tirelessly as an advocate for our rights to clean, safe air and water and has not wavered in her efforts to secure a healthier future for our community. She is our lifetime inductee into the ACE Hall of Fame.

    Hall of Shame:
Shame on Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection for their willingness to sacrifice our health and safety in favor of issuing pollution permits that are based on unprotective standards and regulations, most recently considering a permit that will allow Pottstown Landfill to legally accept radioactive wastes.