"The ‘Horror Story’ of Hazardous Waste in a Small Pennsylvania Town"

"An EPA investigation confirmed residents’ worst fears about operations at an industrial landfill. What happens next is all too uncertain."

"YUKON, Pa. — When government inspectors arrived at the hazardous waste landfill here in 2023, they found themselves in a barren and alien landscape carved from western Pennsylvania’s green countryside.

As they documented operations at Max Environmental Technologies, they climbed fields of blackened waste and photographed pits, mud, debris, stained walls and unlabeled storage containers. Their images offer a startling—and largely hidden—juxtaposition to the rolling hills, horse paddocks and chicken coops around the 160-acre site. What the inspectors captured confirmed the worst fears of Yukon’s residents, who have blamed the landfill for serious health impacts and called on regulators to intervene for years.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found rusted open containers of waste, clogged pipes and a containment building used to store untreated hazardous waste “in pretty significant disrepair.” They watched as rainwater mixed with that waste and flowed from the damaged building."

Kiley Bense reports for Inside Climate News February 23, 2025.

SEE ALSO:

Part One: "Pollution From a Pennsylvania Landfill Caused Problems for Decades. Fracking Waste Made It Worse" (Inside Climate News)

Source: Inside Climate News, 02/26/2025