A landfill in rural Elk County is the likely destination for 12,000 cubic meters of nuclear-contaminated ash sitting in an old wastewater treatment lagoon in Allegheny Township. Onyx Greentree Landfill in Fox Township submitted the apparent low bid Wednesday to accept the ash from the Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority. This is the second time the authority has asked for bids on the project. In November, an East Huntingdon landfill rescinded its bid to take the waste after nearby residents and local school district officials protested Green Ridge Landfill’s plan to accept uranium-contaminated waste. Activists, including the East Huntingdon residents and Leechburg resident Patty Ameno, instead want the authority to take the lagoon ash to a low-level nuclear waste site. Authority officials, along with state and federal environmental regulators, have said that would be prohibitively expensive and unnecessary. “I have faith in what I’ve been told by the federal government and the state government, who said it is unrestricted,” authority Director Bob Kossak said. “We even hired an independent contractor who came in and told us the same thing. I can’t see spending money on a Cadillac when a Chevy will do.” The authority received a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection in October to remove the ash that was contaminated between 1978 and 1984 by waste from the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., and its successor companies Atlantic Richfield and then Babcock & Wilcox. The companies processed nuclear materials in plants in Apollo and Parks until the mid-1980s. The Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority accepted wastewater from these plants, which was treated, leaving behind uranium in the sewage plant treatment lagoon ash. Neumeyer Environmental Services, of Pittsburgh, was the apparent low bidder to remove the ash and truck it to the Elk County landfill. If the authority accepts the bid at its April 19 meeting, the clean up will cost about $741,000. That’s about $140,000 more than the authority planned to spend on the removal project last fall. Kossak said the price increased because the Elk County landfill is about 90 miles from the treatment plant, while the Green Ridge Landfill was only 45 miles away. “The main price increase comes from the extra distance they have to haul it,” Kossak said. Fox Township Supervisor Chairman Mike Keller lives about three-quarters of a mile from the Onyx Greentree Landfill. Contacted Wednesday evening, he said he knew the landfill was bidding to accept the material, but he wanted more information about the contamination of the ash. Keller said he’s not a fan of the landfill and frequently reports problems with the site to the DEP. If the state and federal environmental agencies have ruled the ash is safe for a municipal landfill, however, Keller said he doesn’t know what local officials can do to stop it from coming. “I know you can’t fight the law,” Keller said. “If the law says it’s under the threshold, we’re stuck with it.” The Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority wanted to remove the ash from the defunct lagoon in 1994 as part of normal cleanup, but the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared the ash was nuclear waste and forbid removal. Last year, the NRC ruled the uranium dosage a person would suffer by exposure to the ash was not dangerous, clearing the way for the authority to move the ash to an ordinary municipal landfill. Fred Collins, one of the East Huntingdon residents who successfully campaigned against the ash coming to that municipality, said he and other East Huntingdon residents will launch an informational campaign in Elk County to warn residents there about the lagoon ash. “Nobody wants it,” Collins said. “Put it where it’s safe. Put it out west in a low-level (radiation) waste site.”

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---