Residents of Avoca protest against planned waste transfer station in residential areas

Avoca, Lucerne Co. — Some residents and a state representative are raising concerns about a waste transfer station that could potentially be built in Avoca after an LLC applied for a special permit to build a waste transfer station off Pittston Avenue and Main Street in an area zoned for light industry.

“This does not belong in a residential area. This belongs in the countryside, where there are no buildings and no houses. This is the wrong place for this waste transfer station,” said Pina Hansen, who lives in the Quail Hill settlement.

Hansen says she and other residents were shocked to hear about the possibility of a waste transfer station being built behind their homes.

According to Avoca Town Council President Holly Homschek, the town council has discovered that Wyoming Township-based Big Rocks LLC has applied to the Luzerne County Building Department for a special permit to build a 120,000-square-foot waste transfer station at the corner of Pittston Avenue and Main Street in a light industrial development area.

Homschek and other council members claim they were never contacted by the company, which they say contacted the county’s zoning department directly.

The company plans to operate a construction and demolition waste transfer station that will accept wood, metal and construction debris and transport the waste to landfills the same day.

FOX56 has reached out to Big Rock LLC for comment but has not yet received a response.

Homschek fears that the construction of this waste transfer station would have a negative impact on air quality in the area.

“It has all the fields for the elementary school center and the soccer field. My kids play lacrosse and field hockey there. For grades K-2, it’s their playground,” Homschek added.

The existence of a landfill in the area is a sensitive issue for many residents of the county after the Kerr-McGee plant, a creosote-using wood processing plant that operated for four decades, closed in 1996.

Some claim that the plant’s chemicals and carcinogens have caused cancer and respiratory diseases in humans.

State Rep. Jim Haddock (D-118), former mayor of Avoca, says residents’ fear and frustration are justified given the community’s history of waste incineration at industrial facilities.

“There are products in there. Lead paint can show up here, asbestos, gypsum, a very big problem in the construction waste industry. I don’t blame them. They need to come out, they deserve the answers, they should have the answers,” added State Representative Haddock.

A special Avoca District Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Parish of Queen of Apostles. At the meeting, council will hear a presentation from the company and address concerns from residents.