October 3, 2005
by Jaime Bumbarger
Mo Valley Bureau Chief
Reproduced with permission.

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PHILIPSBURG -- "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone," sung Suzanne Bierly. "They paved paradise and put in a garbage dump."

To the Moshannon resident who lives along state Route 53 not far from the proposed landfill in Rush Township, the lyrics, a play on the Counting Crows' song "Big Yellow Taxi," sum it all up: Don't disturb the peace and tranquility of 5,800 acres of prime woodlands with smelly heaps of trash and hundreds of garbage trucks on local roadways.

The Peale Tunnel, Viaduct Bridge, Red Moshannon canoe and kayak race and scenic elk drive were just a few of the area landmarks and events featured in a 22-minute movie about the landfill that played on the big screen at the Rowland Theatre yesterday afternoon. Approximately three dozen people viewed the movie by Mary Vollero and Peter Warren, including state Rep. Lynn B. Herman, R-77 of Philipsburg, whose district encompasses Rush Township.

"When I first started, I tried to keep an open mind," said Ms. Vollero. "But the longer I worked on it, the more I realized I was going to make a propaganda film."

Besides the beautiful scenery and wildlife, the film featured snippets of the battle the People Protecting Communities has waged over the past 16 months. The grassroots group has organized numerous protests to the landfill, erected 250 signs throughout Centre County, showed up in full force at nearly every meeting involving the landfill and bombarded government officials with petitions and letters against the landfill, as well as a proposed interchange off Interstate 80 that would be used as primary access to the site.

"The fight's not over, but I think we're going to win," said Ed Walsh of State College.

It successfully lobbied supervisors of Snow Shoe Township not to change its zoning, causing landfill developers to scale back the size of the landfill to just a parcel of land in Rush Township.

It appears to have had some influence on county officials who repeatedly found plans for the proposed interchange inconsistent with the county's long-term plans. Just recently, the Centre County Planning Commission, Centre County Board of Commissioners, and Centre County Metropolitan Planning Commission found the interchange was in conflict with the county's comprehensive plan and long-range transportation plan.

And it appears as though its voice has finally been heard by the Governor's office. JoAnn Gillette of PPC said she received confirmation via the telephone this past week that Gov. Ed Rendell will not support public funding of the interchange, contrary to an $8.5 million line item in the Capital Budget earmarked to rehabilitate railways to the site. Now, Ms. Gillette is looking for written confirmation.

Rep. Herman said he has received numerous petitions and letters regarding the landfill and urged the group to keep the pressure on. He expressed shock upon learning the money was included in the Capital Budget, especially after representatives from Lancaster-based developer Resource Recovery LLC said no public money would be used to finance any part of the project. Although the line item does not mean any public money would be funneled towards the project, Rep. Herman said it is important to stop any taxpayers' money from going towards it.

He also suggested it may be time for Pennsylvania to follow in the steps of New York and New Jersey and institute moratoriums on the issuance of new landfill permits.

"We need to reverse this trend of outside trash coming into our beautiful Commonwealth," he said.

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©2005 People Protecting Communities • last updated Nov 6, 2005
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