Environmental group to hold meeting on proposed expansion of Yukon waste facility

An industrial waste treatment and storage company’s plans to add a million tons of capacity at its Yukon landfill will be explored during a public meeting Thursday in the South Huntingdon community.

The Mountain Watershed Association wants to inform residents about Max Environmental Technologies Inc.’s plans for a new storage site to extend the life of its facility off Spring Street. The association is holding a public meeting set for 6:30 p.m. at the Yukon Fire Hall, 124 Highway St.

The association wants to conduct an environmental health survey to determine the impact of Max Environmental’s facility, which treats waste from industries such as steel mills and oil and natural gas wells, said Stacey Magda, a community organizer for the Melcroft-based environmental group.

Max Environmental held a public meeting two years ago in Yukon, when it discussed plans to create a seventh landfill atop a former coal strip mine because its landfill No. 6 is being capped. It is expected to continue as a storage site for three more years, the company said this spring. About four acres of the 16-acre No. 6 landfill, which opened in 1988, was closed last year. Five other waste impoundment landfills were closed previously.

The environmental group does not plan to invite a representative from Max Environmental to talk to the area residents at the meeting, Magda said.

Mountain Watershed is planning to conduct an air quality monitoring program to determine what particles are coming from the treatment and storage facility. They have identified four of five locations for monitoring.

“The air quality has been a longstanding concern of the community,” Magda said.

In the past, Max Environmental has been cited by South Huntingdon for dust that has blown off its current landfill and onto neighboring properties. Environmental concerns remain as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year required Max to continue monitoring the well water of properties in the vicinity of the landfill.

Over the past 30 years, Max Environmental and its predecessor, Mill Services, have primarily treated and stored solids including slag, electric arc furnace dust, metal-impacted soils and drill cuttings from the oil and gas industry, according to the EPA.

The meeting is being held as the Department of Environmental Protection in Pittsburgh is reviewing the company’s revised application it submitted in February to determine whether it is completed, said Lauren Fraley, a spokeswoman for the DEP. The criteria for evaluating hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities is a two-phase process.

The revised application addresses the environmental regulators’ comments on the application Max Environmental submitted in March 2021, said Susan Forney, a spokeswoman for the company.

Carl Spadaro, general manager for Max Environmental, said the application and approval process could take a few years.

A South Huntingdon representative could not be reached for comment on the company’s plans.