By Jim Lockwood
The state Department of Environmental Protection has visually determined that dirt being trucked into DeNaples Auto Parts in Dunmore is clean fill, a DEP spokesperson said Friday.
The DEP checked out the dirt at the request of Scranton City Council. It made the request in response to complaints from some city residents from Lake Scranton Road who are concerned about big truck traffic on their road ruining their neighborhood.
For the past two years, trucks from the DeNaples firm have been using Lake Scranton Road in the city as link between Route 307 and a DeNaples access road at the junction of Lake Scranton Road and Elmhurst Boulevard at the border of Scranton and Dunmore, residents have said.
In response to such residential concerns, the city in November enacted a ban of big trucks on Lake Scranton Road. However, the city's administration decided not to enforce the truck ban after DeNaples Auto Parts in December said it would consider suing the city if it enforced the truck ban.
Residents then raised the issue before council earlier this month and said trucks are transporting and dumping dirt.
That prompted council to send a letter to DEP on Jan. 8 asking the agency to test dirt trucked into and dumped at the DeNaples site.
DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said a DEP inspector who visited the site visually determined that the dirt was clean fill.
"We took a look at the dirt, the fill on DeNaples' property. It was clean fill, so we are not going to do any testing," Ms. Connolly said.
"We did not take samples to test. We just observed that it was clean fill."
She said the dirt was "a small amount, a truckload or two," and that it was trucked from another DeNaples-associated property, the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Monroe County,
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com