The Real Hazleton

This Picturesque View Is Of The Greater Hazleton and surrounding Area Will Show The True Story Of What We Live With On A Day To Day Basis.

Past Deep Pit Coal Mining Has Raped And Robbed This Area
Of All It’s Scenic Beauty And Left Some Nasty Scars Here

Before we get into some of the picturesque scenes from the area, I thought I would bring up two important issues that face the Hazleton Area.

Water One is the concern of the water quality in the Hazleton area. I thought about writing this as I saw a lady carry out a water cooler she had purchased from K-Mart. I thought to myself "another person who doesn't drink the water". My husband and I haven't drank the water here for a year now. It's amazing that you can do without the smell of Chlorine. Do we really know what's in the water, not for sure, but when it comes from a reservoir only a mile and a quarter from the old Berylium site and pumped from the Hudsondale dam, which has connections to the Still Creek Reservoir, which had problems in the past. Also, not to forget the arsenic found in #6 well at McAdoo. I'm sorry I will not drink it, I don't even water my plants with it. Copies of the local water company reports are available on the EPA Envirofacts board at www.epa.gov/enviro/ by clicking on water then in the SDWIS block type in the zip code.

Sewer People in the surrounding area of Hazleton just paid exorbitant fees to be connected to the sewer system, when in reality Hazleton has a Combined Sewer Outfall system. What that means is when it rains or there is an access of water, valves are opened and the water flows out supposedly to creeks, not, onto the land, rain water and sewage. There are 15 valves all together that open to 13 outfalls. I know personally of a few. One flows under a bridge and under the Thomas Market on the 940 road, another is in Cranberry and flows to the property just remediated, the next flows along Hollars Hill Road and pours out on the side of the road across from the old entrance to the Old Hazleton City Landfill, the next flows out of a tunnel that runs under Broad St and flows out next to the UGI building on North Poplar St. and the last one I know of, and the largest flows on to the old Hazleton City Landfill and looks like a large reservoir. Verification of what I have said is located on the Greater Hazleton Joint Sewer Authority Page at www.ghjsa.org then click on CSO.

Here are the pictures to document my statements.


CSO 10	Goes under Thomas Market	Sewer from under 924	Goes onto Cranberry Land


CSO 4	Runs onto Hollars Hill Road	CSO 13 & 14	Runs out of tunnel by UGI


Channel from Locust Pumping Station	Runs onto Hazleton City Landfill

Combine this information with the following.

This is one of the greatest travesties of this area. Quite a few years ago, a friend of mine lost her son when he fell over a high wall in the back of Kelayres, where they lived. Office of Surface Mining spent in access of 9 million dollars to reclaim that land, only to have AC Fuels dump Fly Ash down the side wall of the reclaimed area into the wetlands that have formed on the bottom.

UPDATE! I requested files, including the permit for AC Fuels to be dumping into this remediation site. I received the documents on Jan. 14, 2009, including a letter from the Pottsville office of DEP. The letter states "The ash placement area is adjacent to the reclamation site. The mine reclamation area will not be disturbed to allow placement of coal ash." Either myself and a few people are going blind or something is wrong here. That ash is going right down the side of the reclamation site.

OSM 54 (1385)


This is part of the entire reclamation. The wetlands are at the far end.	Closer view of the Fly Ash spilling down the bank into the wetlands at the far end.


Bulldozer pushes Fly Ash into pit containing wetlands	Wetlands filled with Fly Ash Slurry.

Pictures courtesy of My McAdoo Home

The picture to the left is a drainage channel that would drain the water if the pond becomes too high. In 2008, we saw AMD coming out of the ground in the middle of the channel, not from the pond. I reported the issue to DEP, but they didn't think it was a problem. In July of 2009 this picture on the right was taken showing the water seriously discolored (also someone's tires that had been dumped there). I suspect the Quakake Tunnel which runs under the site is blocked and AMD is seeping through the surface of this site.

This Is 2 fly ash pits between McAdoo and Audenreid belonging to AC Fuels and NEPCO disposal.

Adjacent to NEPCO and BIG GORILLA, is of the most toxic sites in the area - McAdoo Associates, south of McAdoo on rte 309.

Chemicals from site possibly have polluted Surface Water, Groundwater And Possibly The Stillcreek Reservoir, With People Suffering from a rare form of Cancer called Polycythemia Vera. The site Was Removed From The Superfund List On December 13, 2001.

Remains of first McAdoo Associates Site

Removal of underground storage tank.

The passive system installed on the Audenreid Tunnel cleans the water before it enters the Susquehanna River.

This Building Was The Site Of The Former Chromatex Plant #2,
Valmont Industrial Park, Famous For It’s Releases of Trichloroethylene
Into The Surface And Groundwater of The Surrounding Area.

Wells are being treated with Potassium Permanganate in hopes of dissolving the TCE.

Tranguch Tire Service, Sam’s Amoco, Orloski’s Shell and Hazleton Standard Fuel were the original four blamed for the spill. In Feb 2009, Tranguch was removed from a class action lawsuit because of bankruptcy and Hazleton Standard for an unknown reason was removed also. The remaining defendants are Exxon Mobil, Pipeline Petroleum, Lisari Realty, Sam’s Amoco and owner Sam Franzosa and Gracedale Realty a party from the former Shell station. Spill affected 400 homes in the Laurel Garden section of Hazleton.

The following 3 sites should have been placed on the Superfund List, but were not.

This is the former site of the Hazleton City Landfill. From 1955 to 1982 toxic chemical of every name was dumped on this site.

Now being "reclaimed" with River dredge and construction and demolition waste, and Flue Gas Desulfurization material.

Site Of The Former Kawecki-Berylco, Beryllium Plant In Ashmore,
East Of Hazleton. Dr. Dessen said this plant would boast Hazleton's economy,
instead it killed hundreds of people who contacted Beryliosis, like Bertha.
Land Is Now Owned By Cabot Corp.

American Cable Recyclers

Formerly Agmet, they recycled silver from x-rays and photographic film. Several deteriorated drums of Potassium Cyanide and other chemicals were found on the premises and removed by the EPA.

A little more than a mile from the old Beryllium Site is the Derek Creek Reservoir, where Hazleton gets its drinking water from.

Jeddo Tunnel Exits Acid Mine Drainage From The Jeddo Mine workings
And The Hazleton Shaft To The Nescopeck Creek In Drums.

Nescopeck Creek suffers from Acid Mine Drainage from the Jeddo Tunnel.

This is the great Silt bank at the crossroads of Highland and Jeddo roads (Across from where the breaker stood).

These trucks are taking the silt to Northampton Fuel to burn.

In return they are brining in fly ash from the burning and depositing it in a pit along
Stockton Mountain Road.

I had received an email from a person asking me to take a look at a site located east of Freeland, PA. The former site of C & D Recyclers. I did some checking on the EPA site and found that the site is still on the Superfund List. I went to the site and took some pictures. I had some concerns that there were no monitoring wells on the site, especially since it is a Superfund site.

This was Oct. 25, 2007 This was April 13, 2008 - The Office Is Gone.

As you can see in this picture taken April 13, 2008, the office has been torn down. What is even more interesting the sign on the fence "WARNING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS NO TRESPASSING" had been removed. Is that saying the site is now ok?

I was just reading an article in the Standard-Speaker on July 20th saying C & D Recyclers is going to lose their Superfund status. The property went up for a tax sale an 2006 and was purchased by the conservancy, who plans on keeping the site in it's natural state. I can't understand how anyone could think all of these contaminants just wash away after time.

The huge pile of chipped plastics composed of aluminum and copper wire on the property of Eastern Diversified Metals in Hometown, PA. The company reclaimed copper and aluminum from cable between 1966 and 1977. Was placed on the Superfund List in October of 1989. On the lower right is a picture of a section of the remediated site on September 20, 2008.

Still Creek Reservoir supplies Tamaqua and surrounding area. Believed to be contaminated from McAdoo Associates. Location of fish with cancerous cysts.

Hudsondale Dam supplies water to Hazleton. Is fed by Quakake Creek. Believed to be contaminated by same source as Still Creek.

Many of Our People Have Died Senselessly Because Of The Coal Mining And Industry That Has Been Located In Our Area. We Are Hoping For A Better Future And An End To The Senseless Suffering And Dying From Industry And The Environment.

Thank You For Visiting The "Real" Hazleton Area.

Visit My Other Page And Read About The Hazleton Dredge Issue And More.

STOP THE DUMPING

Visit These Two Web Sites And They Will Give You More Truth About This Area.

H O M E T O W N H A Z A R D S

A RURAL PENNSYLVANIA COMMUNITY BATTLES TOXIC POLLUTION

This page was updated 5/4/2012

Old Navy Online

2001 - 2012


Big Gorilla being filled with ash from NEPCO.	Big Gorilla upon completion.


This was Oct. 25, 2007	This was April 13, 2008 - The Office Is Gone.