THROOP - A trash disposal request at Monday's borough council meeting rekindled talk of the Marjol battery site.
Council reviewed a request from Exide Technologies of Reading to dispose of residual waste at the Keystone Sanitary Landfill at the meeting. Within the request, some samples of the waste showed a presence of lead and others showed none, but the word triggered some board members.
"What I'm seeing up there is a Marjol operation, just smaller," Councilman Dave Repchick said after reading a section mentioning broken batteries.
More than 500,000 tons of battery casings and lead-contaminated soil at the Marjol battery site were contained with a 10-acre cap, a clean-up process that took more than two years. The former battery recycling facility, owned by Gould Electronics Inc. was closed in 1982.
A section of the application listed a priority of the Exide facility, where secondary lead smelting takes place, as reducing the toxicity of the waste.
"You're already telling me it's toxic," Mr. Repchick said.
Not all board members shared the concern.
Councilman Mark Mazak noted that the Department of Environmental Protection requires applicants seeking to dispose of waste at the landfill to meet certain requirements.
"We're not biologists or chemists or anything," Councilwoman Charlene Tomasovitch added.
Council President Thomas Lukasewicz asked council to be mindful of the applications and waste processed at the landfill.
"I'm not saying this is bad," he said. "I'm just making you aware."
Mr. Lukasewicz added that he hoped the application would be rejected.
Also at the meeting, Mrs. Tomasovitch questioned the borough's code in reference to sign permits. Code enforcement officer Bob Lokuta said all signs require a permit, except for sale signs, political signs and signs announcing a contractor's work.
Mrs. Tomasovitch then asked Mr. Lukasewicz if he had a permit for a sign on his property that reads, "We the people do not want Marcellus waste in our town!" She pointed out she was not part of "we the people."
He said he did not plan on purchasing one.
"I live in America and I have a right to express my opinion," he said after the meeting.
"Election season has started," he added.
Contact the writer: rbrown@timesshamrock.com, @rbrownTT on Twitter