Coplay Aggregates owners told officials they are willing to address high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the quarry once the federal Environmental Protection Agency makes a final determination.

On July 19, Whitehall Mayor Michael Harakal Jr. and state Reps. Jeanne McNeill, D-133rd, and Zach Mako, R-183rd, were given a tour of the Coplay Aggregates quarry where contaminated fill has reportedly been dumped.

McNeill had asked the owners to give Harakal, Mako and herself a tour at a July 9 hearing held by the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee on local concerns about the state’s regulations for fill.

McNeill said they were given a complete tour of the facility that lasted several hours and were shown the area where the contaminated soil is reportedly located. She said they talked to the owners at length, adding that she felt it was a good meeting.

“The owners are waiting for a final determination from the EPA as to whether there is a violation, and if so, the owners state they will act accordingly to remediate it,” McNeill said. “They seem to be responsible business owners who want to be good neighbors with Whitehall Township and the local residents.”

Earlier this month, Harakal said there is a “history” between Coplay Aggregates and the township that “has unfortunately led us to not really believe what we hear from the owners.” Harakal did not respond to a request for comments on the July 19 tour.

Coplay Aggregates, 5101 Beekmantown Road, was notified of its noncompliance by the EPA March 13 after samples taken from the quarry contained high levels of PCBs. However, township officials didn’t find out about the contaminated fill until June, when, after a meeting between Coplay Aggregates and Harakal, the township executive secretary received an email from the federal EPA reporting a violation. The notice was not mentioned during the meeting.

According to the notice, samples from Coplay Aggregates had PCB levels that measured 6.75 parts per million. Federal limits say PCB levels should not exceed 2 parts per million.

According to the EPA, PCBs belong to a family of man-made organic chemicals that were manufactured and used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications from 1929 until being banned in 1979. PCBs do not readily break down once in the environment and have been found in water in areas far from where they were released. PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of adverse health effects and are potentially carcinogenic.

Township officials allege the fill is being brought in from New York and New Jersey because Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection standards for pollutants are less stringent than in those other states. Officials still say they have no answers why the contaminated fill was allowed to be dumped in the township and why they were not notified sooner that there was a violation.

“Pennsylvania has become the dumping ground of other states due to our lax definition of enforcement,” Harakal said at the last township board meeting.

The July 9 hearing was also attended by officials from Bangor and Upper Mount Bethel Township, who have similar concerns about contaminated fill being dumped in a quarry in East Bangor.

Harakal said he talked to officials from Bangor and Upper Mount Bethel and the three communities had a “mutual desire to get together and look at pooling resources down the road in hiring an environmental attorney.”

Mako is working on legislation that would require timely notice of violations and would make DEP regulations as strong as EPA regulations. The quarry is located in Mako’s district, but McNeill says they are both concerned about any issue that might affect the health of Whitehall and Coplay residents.

McNeill said the tour also addressed complaints residents have had about noise, odors and dust from operations of the quarry. She said, during the tour, they had the windows rolled down, and she didn’t smell any foul odors or see dust.

McNeill said she suggested Coplay Aggregates owners hold a town hall meeting to address the concerns of local residents.

“I’m sure they feel like they will be thrown to the wolves because a number of residents have complaints and say they don’t trust them,” she said. “But I encouraged them that if the residents can talk with them directly about how the quarry is operated, opinions may be changed. The owner said they address complaints and take any violation seriously.”