Group of Hazelwood advocates appeals solid waste transfer permit | The Homepage

Objections include lack of public input, facility being unsuitable and state DEP not following environmental justice laws

The Republic Services recycling facility at 50 Vespucius St. in Hazelwood, seen from the Melanchton Street pedestrian bridge on May 18. Photo by Ziggy Edwards

By Ziggy Edwards for Junction Coalition

On April 26, Hazelwood community members filed an appeal against a permit reissued to the recycling plant at 50 Vespucius St. The permit gives the plant’s owner, Republic Services, state approval to add a waste transfer station.

The parties to the appeal are Hazelwood Initiative Inc., District 5 City Councilor Barb Warwick, Arts Excursions Unlimited co-founder Edith Abeyta, and Dianne Shenk, owner of Dylamato’s Market at 5414 Second Ave.

A waste transfer station is a place where municipal trash is collected before being hauled to a landfill. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, also known as the DEP, transferred the solid waste permit to Republic Services from the previous owner in March.

A team effort

Sonya Tilghman, executive director of Hazelwood Initiative Inc., described the appeal as a collaboration. Ms. Warwick’s office did much of the legwork to follow the appeal process, and Pitt’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic helped with legal arguments.

“The councilwoman’s office was really on top of this,” Ms. Tilghman said during a May 8 phone call.

Ms. Warwick told the Planning Commission on Nov. 18, 2025, that the facility’s previous owner never informed residents about adding a waste transfer station. Neighbors found out about the permit when Republic Services applied to have it transferred. But this was not because of outreach by Republic Services. Calls from concerned residents prompted Ms. Warwick to look into the issue.

Clara Weibel works as the legislative director in Ms. Warwick’s office. She explained on May 8 that appeals to decisions made by the Department of Environmental Protection are filed with Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board. The hearing board is not a court, but functions in a similar way. If a party is dissatisfied with the board’s final ruling in their case, they can appeal that ruling to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

The objections

The appeal listed 10 objections to the solid waste permit.

The appeal states that the facility has “a documented history of regulatory noncompliance” and has failed health department inspections in past years. According to the appeal, representatives from Republic Services said during an Oct. 20, 2025, call with Environmental Protection Regional Director Eric Gustafson and Program Manager Sharon Svitek that the facility “required extensive renovation before it could be appropriately operated as a waste transfer station.”

The facility also may not meet the state’s required 300-foot distance from homes. The appeal says the part of the facility where Republic Services has said a waste transfer station would go is only 150 feet from the nearest occupied home.

The facility is also closer than required by a zoning ordinance passed on Feb. 24 that requires solid waste transfer stations to be at least 500 feet from homes, the appeal states.

A zoning change that the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning has recommended for adoption is listed as another objection. If passed, the area where the recycling facility is located will be zoned for industrial mixed use, not heavy industry.

The appeal states that the Department of Environmental Protection should not have reissued the permit without accounting for this pending zoning change, which it says, “was foreseeable at the time of decision.”

The recycling facility held the permit under the previous owners but never used it. For this reason, the Department of Environmental Protection should have treated the permit application like a first-time application, according to the appeal. If the state had done so, the application would have had to clear much higher regulatory hurdles. These include “compliance with current design requirements, updated environmental review and full public participation,” the appeal states.

The Department of Environmental Protection, the appeal says, failed to act as an environmental trustee in issuing the permit. It failed to conduct or require a local municipality involvement process or notify the public about the permit. And the state neglected to follow its own laws in issuing the permit without conducting an enhanced public input process required for environmental justice areas like Hazelwood, the appeal states.

After Ms. Warwick submitted a formal request for environmental justice review on June 24, 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, did not schedule a public hearing, issue any results or create a community page, the appeal states.

“DEP’s failure to act on this request — particularly in light of the community’s documented concerns and the facility’s location in an [environmental justice] area — is arbitrary, capricious and inconsistent with the agency’s own policy commitments,” the appeal reads.

Residents near the recycling plant have long complained of noise and exhaust from trucks, bad smells and rats. At Pittsburgh Planning Commission and City Council meetings over the past year, they said they worried how much worse these problems could get if the recycling plant also handled food and other kinds of waste.

‘An ongoing thing’

Lori Kolczynski is Republic Services’ general manager for the Pittsburgh market. Ms. Kolczynski did not respond to requests for comment on the appeal. But she wrote in a March 17 email, after the state Department of Environmental Protection reissued the permit, that “Republic Services remains committed to being a responsible partner and good neighbor in Hazelwood.”

Ms. Kolczynski spoke at the March 10 Greater Hazelwood community meeting, showing photos of upgrades made at the recycling plant since Republic Services bought it in February 2025. The company has spent more than $3 million on improvements since then, she said.

She addressed neighbors’ complaints about odors, debris and rodents around the building. “We know it’s going to be an ongoing thing,” she said of Republic Services’ efforts to keep these problems at a minimum.

Ms. Kolczynski told meeting attendees that Republic Services bought this facility for recycling and does not intend to put a waste transfer station there. But she said that if they did, they would keep it clean and schedule trucks to avoid high-traffic times on Second Avenue.

Ms. Tilghman said she believes Ms. Kolczynski is sincere and that Republic Services is improving their facility. The problem is that this type of plant cannot avoid causing air pollution and other environmental harms.

“Two things can be true at once,” Ms. Tilghman added. “We can believe that, and want to be good neighbors with you, and also not want you to expand.”

View the appeal at tinyurl.com/April26-permit-appeal.

Ziggy Edwards is a citizen journalist who lives in Four Mile Run and proofreads every issue of The Homepage.