Fact Checking the 193 acres of "permanently" conserved land
The new conservation easements have been presented as being “Permanent”, although there is no third-party agency identified and listed on the easement documents. The township has been trying to identify an agency to hold the easements; however, no such agency has agreed to be a part of this conservation hoax.
Bethlehem Landfill & Council majority claim to be "permanently preserving" 193 acres of land
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Bethlehem Landfill says it's nearly an acre for acre exchange for the land they're removing from existing conservation easements.
The majority on council (Yerger, Inglis, Banonis, Carocci) agreed to accept the land as a "trade" for the land they will destroy with the landfill expansion. This land (shown in green) includes an area of carbonate geology that DEP wouldn't approve for landfill, a strip of land over the existing pipeline, a bunch of homes, and land that is part of the active landfill parcel. The open space committee would never have recommended this for conservation!
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Bethlehem Landfill claims their easements will provide more protection over the areas than currently exists with broader development restrictions
The original easements prohibited landfill use. The landfill's new easement allows them to burn, cut, remove, or destruct trees, shrubs, and other woody vegetation in these cases:
1) To remove dead, infested, or diseased trees (no notice needed to do this)
There's no way for anyone to confirm if what they would remove fits these criteria
2) To control erosion
It certainly isn’t normal to remove vegetation to control erosion – this generally causes erosion
3) To install and maintain groundwater monitoring wells or gas monitoring probes, stormwater
management, or stream restoration activities
Constructing things required to run a landfill on the conserved land – that’s not really conserved!
4) As necessary for utilities such as electric, gas, and telephone that are needed to serve the permitted
uses in the Easement Area or other properties located within the Permit Area for Bethlehem Landfill
Solid Waste Permit No. 10020
Again, constructing things required to run a landfill on conserved land – so it’s not really conserved!
5) To log the property as long as they have an approved forest management plan
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Normally, properties placed in conservation have the existing structures and a building envelope excluded from the easement area. But Yerger, Inglis, Banonis, and Carocci agreed to accept these parcels, including the structures as part of the conserved area!
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