View the 1988 Comprehensive Plan

The ordinance amendment created a Solid Waste district for solid waste uses, and a Zoning Map change that defined the boundaries of the new district continue to spark more controversy.    The amendment adoption hearing at which extensive testimony was taken from representatives of the landfill, citizens of the township, members of S.O.L.E.(Save Our Local Environment) , special counsel Sugarman and supervisors was held on June 30 of 1988.  Representatives of the landfill threatened that the amendment could not stand legal scrutiny, and Nolan Perin was on the record stating that the township had wasted 18 months and had nothing to show for its effort and legal fees.  Naturally, the landfill wanted no local regulations to control it.

The testimony reveals that many citizens wanted the landfill to not expand at all.  Some participants testified that Plainfield Township does not need to be the dumping ground for the entire state of Pennsylvania, and trash was already arriving in significant amounts from out of state as well.  The ultimate size of the district was chosen to provide the landfill and other solid waste uses to be located in the township, and to prevent challenges that the district was not large enough.   Some testified that the township had already taken in its fair share of garbage and sludge - as of 1988.  The legal consultants found that a municipality does not in all cases need to provide for every possible use, and incinerators were made a non-permitted use in the township.  

2017 -Biosolids Processing Proposal - Synagro Heat Plant

Waste Management Inc. and Synagro Technologies, a biosolids processing company, wanted to build an enormous thermal drying facility to process sewage at the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill on the border of Pen Argyl and Plainfield Township, PA, near homes and businesses, children’s athletic fields, and the two high quality streams. Named the “Slate Belt Heat Recovery Center”, the plant would be located on a 12.1 acre parcel of the Green Knight Energy Center (an existing landfill gas energy facility) lot, at the location of a former rock quarry site at the Grand Central Landfill, which is owned and operated by Waste Management Inc. The plant would use heat from Green Knight which would run on a combination of landfill gas and piped-in natural gas. 

They would truck in up to 400 wet tons, up to 50 truck trips, every day of human sewage sludge from states throughout the region to produce dried sludge pellets, a biosolids product sold as fertilizer (sometimes labeled “organic” or “compost”) and heat pellets. 

The project was withdrawn by Synagro in September 2019 after 3 years of objection by the community against the proposal to build the sludge plant.  

Can we really trust Waste Management with future plans if they acquire more land?

2020 - Waste Management requests that land zoned as Farm and Forest be rezoned for landfill usage (property located along Delabole Road and Pen Argyl Road). The land (hot pink) borders along land currently owned by Grand Central-Waste Management.  This would allow the landfill to expand into the 211 acres of land and connect with the current parcel owned by them that could be used for even expansion requests beyond the 211 acre parcel in question.

Slate Springs Farms LLC, Gary Perin Manager,  continues to purchase farms in the Farm and Forest Zoning District along the borders of the landfill.  to purchase property as it becomes available along the borders of the landfill and the Farm and Forest zoned land, acquiring such as Slate Belt Spring Farms, LLC.  

2023-24  Lower Nazareth Township purchases the Hower Farm with the intent to spread their biosolid/sewage sludge on the land (light pink).  Chrin Acres LLC purchases the Achenbach farm (blue).  While the Achenbach farm is preserved farmland, there is concern that the property may be utilized for biosolids or waste disposal in the future.  

How many are waiting to see what the Board of Supervisors allow in our township? Is the future of Plainfield Township a dumping ground for all?  

In the 2023 township supervisors election, Matt Glenon and Joe Colosi ran on a platform opposing dump expansion. They won the most votes in the Plainfield Delabole area immediately surrounding the dump by a significant margin. Those who don’t live in smell-range chose Nolan Kemmerer and Ken Field, and ultimately decided the race. So while we accept the results of that election, the message is clear: people who live by the dump have had enough. And if we allow WM to expand the dump, the number of people negatively impacted will only grow. 

A class action lawsuit is pending in the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania related to noxious odors that migrated from the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill. On July 31, 2023, the Honorable Judge Anthony S. Beltrami ruled that this lawsuit can proceed as a class action on behalf of a “Class” (i.e., a group of people and entities) that could include you. The Class, subject to certain exclusions discussed in the notice, consists of all individuals who owned or rented residential property between 2017 and 2019 within  "the Class Area."   On April 2, 2025 the court struck down a motion by WM to decertify the class and approved the "notice plan" 

The complaint can be found in its entirety (with attachments) by going to  https://www.grandcentrallandfillclassaction.com/  and clicking on the "Important Court Documents" box.