A dozen Lower Saucon Township residents opposing the expansion of a local landfill have reasons for hope. Two consecutive elections and a court ruling show a turning of the tide in the citizens’ battle against IESI PA Bethlehem Landfill Corporation, Lower Saucon Township municipal authorities, and a plan to expand the existing landfill at 2335 Applebutter Road into an area protected by conservation easements.

In a December 2025 ruling in Northampton County Court of Common Pleas, Judge Abe Kassis upheld two easements that bar landfills on more than 200 acres of the land owned by the corporation. Kassis explained that Lower Saucon Township Council did not have the authority to void the easements; only Northampton County Orphans’ Court has this power.

Lower Saucon Township Council had voted in 2022 to void the conservation easements, rezone hundreds of acres, and approve a landfill expansion plan, prompting lawsuits from a group residents led by Bruce Petrie. Two nonprofits (Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Corridor and St. Luke’s Hospital) and one adjacent municipality (Bethlehem Township) subsequently joined the legal fight on the residents’ side.

Procedural, substantive challenges

Challenges to actions taken by Lower Saucon Township municipal authorities are both procedural and substantive.

For example, case C-48-CV-2023-01779 is the residents’ appeal of the February 2023 decision by the Lower Saucon Township Zoning Hearing Board not to hear their substantive validity challenge to the December 2022 adoption of Lower Saucon Township Ordinance 2022-02. The appellants had challenged the adoption of Ordinance 2022-02 on Jan. 17, 2023. The hearing calendared for February 2023 never took place; instead, the board chairman signed a Notice of Deemed Decision, which the board adopted. The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs were denied their due process rights.

The residents’ suit also makes a substantive validity challenge to the adoption of the ordinance – the challenge the residents planned to make at the hearing that never happened. Among other grounds, the residents allege that the ordinance violates a scenic and conservation easement signed by Lower Saucon Township and the City of Bethlehem in 1994. Ordinance 2022-02 rezoned 275.5 acres of land from “rural agricultural” to “light industrial,” as well as adding landfills to the list of uses that the Township Council could conditionally approve. (Prior to the adoption of the ordinance, these types of facilities were subject to special exceptions, rather than conditional approval.)

Another suit, C-48-CV-2024-00049, alleges that the Lower Saucon Township Board of Commissioners improperly granted approval to the proposed landfill expansion despite the finding of numerous deficiencies by Hanover Engineering, the firm retained by the township. One notable deficiency is that existing zoning regulations prohibit the conducting of landfill or waste disposal activities within 100 feet of the bank of any stream; two streams are within the proposed expansion area.

St. Luke’s Hospital Anderson Campus has an open case of its own (C-48-CV-2024-00093) that makes clear the position of the hospital as a very near neighbor of the land it alleges was improperly rezoned. The hospital “avers that [Lower Saucon] Township abused its discretion and/or erred as a matter of law” in approving Bethlehem Landfill’s application and granting waivers to existing statutes. The hospital also claims that “as an affected party, St. Luke’s was denied its right to participate in the entitlement process […] including providing expert witness testimony providing evidence of the detrimental effects the Application will have on the surrounding environment, as well as St. Luke’s individually.”

Unrelated to the lawsuits, but standing as an additional hurdle to the proposed expansion, is a Phase V Major Permit Modification from Pa. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approval, which (as of press time) had not been issued.

PAC funding and PR

In 2023, despite a New York State-based super PAC (Responsible Solutions for Pennsylvania) spending more than $26,000 on mailers to Lower Saucon Township residents in advance of the election, anti-expansion candidates Victoria Opthof-Cordaro and Laura Ray defeated their pro-expansion opponents, Mark Inglis and Sandra Yerger.

After Inglis and Yerger lost their seats, Bethlehem Landfill’s parent company gave $89,000 to Responsible Solutions for Pennsylvania. Both the pre-election mailers and the post-election donation were covered by Will Oliver of local NPR affiliate WLVR.

Pro-expansion council members Jason Banonis and Tom Carocci chose not to run for reelection in 2025, and the open seats were won by anti-expansion candidates Hunter Gress and Chad Heimbecker. Gress and Heimbecker campaigned with a message of “not for sale,” alluding to the landfill-backed super PAC.

Attorney Gary Neil Asteak, who represents the residents, told the Press, “Arguments that we were making in the courthouse were running simultaneously with arguments being made on the street politically.”

The attorney framed the issues this way: “What benefits the health, safety, and welfare of the community? It seemed as though what had happened, at least from my perception, was this council was acting contrary to the public interest, and the public really did not want the expansion of the landfill.” He contended that once residents became aware of the details of the landfill expansion plans, they elected council members who shared their views opposing the expansion.

Asteak also noted the significance of St. Luke’s Anderson Campus and the Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Corridor joining the fight against the landfill expansion. “St. Luke’s has a stake in the health of the community,” he asserted, adding that both nonprofits brought, “Good lawyers, good legal support, and added gravitas to the significance of our claims.”

(Frank N. D’Amore III of Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba PC, who represents St. Luke’s, was also invited to comment, but did not respond by press time.)

With Lower Saucon Township Council membership flipping over the course of two elections, Bethlehem Landfill continues its public relations battle, highlighting its “focus on sustainability” on the front page of its website and insisting that if it isn’t allowed to expand the landfill, Lower Saucon Township won’t be able to pay its bills without a major tax increase.

In a press release titled “Tax Storm Ahead: Lower Saucon Residents Face Steep Property Tax Increases if Bethlehem Landfill Shuts Down,” the company refers to a May 2025 study it commissioned that was performed by Susquehanna Accounting & Consulting Solutions, Inc. The study states that the existing landfill will run out of space by 2028, but that the proposed expansion would extend its life into 2044.

SA&CS projects that if the landfill closes in 2028 rather than 2044, Lower Saucon Township will forgo $63.2 million in revenue, based on per-ton fees ($11 for municipal waste and $13.75 for residual waste) negotiated with Lower Saucon Township in the Amended and Restated Host Community Agreement in November 2023.

The residents’ fight is not over: Bethlehem Landfill may appeal the ruling by Kassis or take its request to void the conservation easements to the Orphans’ Court.

The Press requested comment from the attorneys representing the municipality and the corporation. Maryanne Starr Garber of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC stated that “[her] client [Bethlehem Landfill] does not comment on active litigation.” Lower Saucon Township Solicitor Steven N. Goudsouzian had no comment.