Schuylkill County Commissioners expressed frustration last week that their attempts to reach Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and officials with the Dept. of Environmental Protection on growing environmental concerns have gone nowhere.
A lively and sometimes loud conversation on this matter happened during last week’s Commissioners meeting and follow-up Salary Board meeting at the Courthouse on Wednesday.
Peppered by comments about the continual stench in western Schuylkill County and what the Commissioners are (and aren’t) doing about it prompted Chairman Larry Padora to go on several prolonged rants about his frustrations about the inability for local officials here to make contact with anyone in Harrisburg.
Commissioner Gary Hess suggested that Schuylkill County’s heavy contingent of state legislators could be doing more to help.
Padora: “They don’t call you back.”
All these comments came up during Public Comment portions of the Commissioners Work Session meeting and the Salary Board meeting that immediately followed.
Once again, people from western Schuylkill County and one of their vocal advocates expressed their frustrations to the Commissioners over the ongoing problem of horrendous stench they say emanates from several sources, but namely Natural Soil Products, a biosolids processor.
People who live near that facility say what’s happening at NSP is causing a noxious odor most days, so bad that it makes them sick, they can’t go outside, and they can’t open the windows of their homes.
They come to the Commissioners because they see them as the highest authority in Schuylkill County and the local people most likely to be able to help hold the polluters, as they see them, accountable.
But the Commissioners have said and definitely reiterated on Wednesday that they can only do so much and what they are doing isn’t getting anywhere.
Padora says he’s asked the County Solicitor’s Office to write a letter to the Secretary of DEP, the Secretary of the EPA, and to the office of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to look into the environmental issues ongoing in western Schuylkill County.
He’s settled on a letter as an alternative to not getting calls back from Harrisburg.
“We call DEP; they don’t call you back,” Padora said, adding that he gets a similar response from the Governor’s Office. “We’re going to send an official letter from the County and see if that gets us anywhere.”
Hess did counter that by saying they are able to reach out to Drew Popish, the Northeast Regional Coordinator for the Shapiro administration.
But Padora said calls to Popish go nowhere as well.
“Drew tries to help us,” Padora said.
Padora added that the Commissioners can only do so much and in reality, they seemingly struggle to get their message through to anyone in Harrisburg. But it’s not for lack of effort, he said.
“We’re trying. We’re the people with the least authority to do anything,” Padora said. “We have little authority other than what Harrisburg lets us and we’re trying to do as much as we can. I know it’s not fast enough for you but we’re trying.”
“You would think that Governor Shapiro would care more about the counties.”
Padora tried to allay concerns of those in attendance at last week’s Commissioners meeting that he and his fellow board members aren’t doing anything to help.
He pointed the finger at Shapiro. Hess disagreed with the finger pointing.
“I’ve been in contact with the Governor’s office 20 times,” Padora said. “Gov. Shapiro’s office does not respond.”
Hess countered, “Yes, they do.”
Padora fired back, “They do not respond, Gary.
“And he was a former County Commissioner. You would think that Gov. Shapiro would care more about the counties. He was a former County Commissioner.”
The Commissioners have promised a meeting between DEP and the concerned citizens of western Schuylkill County.
So far this year, the only thing that’s happened was a closed-door meeting between the Commissioners, DEP, representatives of three companies that get the most blame for the environmental issues in that part of Schuylkill County, and a representative of Shapiro’s office.
Padora said the Commissioners have tried to get that meeting set but run into a wall.
“We’re going to his agencies, his appointed people and it falls on deaf ears. We can’t even get them to set up a meeting,” Padora said. “We called 10 times. OK, you have to do a Zoom meeting first. They cancel it. You have to do a Zoom meeting next week … They cancel it.”
Five voices silent?
Later, during an extended Public Comment period of the Salary Board meeting that follows the Commissioners meeting, Padora continued to express frustration with seemingly having very little power to do anything to help the people in western Schuylkill County.
But he got political in noting how the officials people complain about the most are all of a certain party, the Democrats.
It took Gary Hess all of 5 seconds to call Padora out on that assessment, pleading with him not to get political. Hess pointed out that Schuylkill County has “5 voices” in Harrisburg (4 State Representatives and a State Senator, all of whom are Republicans).
Hess said, “We have five voices: four in the House of Representatives and a Senator. You have five (voices) yelling to get that voice there, too?”
He meant that those officials in Harrisburg could be the ones making contact with Shapiro or higher-ups with DEP.
“Let’s not leave them out. I didn’t want to bring that up but you keep throwing …
“Listen, arguing isn’t going to get you [anywhere]. Nowhere at all. This finger, that finger … it’s not going [anywhere],” Hess said.
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