A federal court has ordered Republic Services of Pennsylvania LLC to pay a $9.2 million civil penalty for repeatedly dumping illegal levels of pollutants into a York County creek, violating the Clean Water Act more than 400 times over a four-year period.
The ruling, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, penalizes the waste management company for severe environmental non-compliance at its Modern Landfill facility.
The court found that Republic Services discharged approximately 156 million gallons of improperly treated landfill leachate over 1,393 days into Kreutz Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, between July 2019 and April 2023.
The penalty follows an April 2025 liability ruling confirming 419 distinct violations of the facility’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Discharges exceeded legally permitted thresholds for boron and osmotic pressure (a surrogate measure for total dissolved solids), both of which pose significant risks to aquatic life, vegetation, and local water health.
Court findings revealed Republic Services knew as early as November 2016 that its wastewater treatment system was inadequate to handle the pollutants, yet delayed fully installing necessary facility upgrades until April 2023.
The legal battle began in 2023 when the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, represented by the public interest law firm Public Justice, filed a citizen lawsuit against Republic Services.
Modern Landfill generates roughly 200,000 gallons of leachate—a toxic liquid formed when water filters through waste—each day. While federal regulations permit landfills to discharge treated wastewater under strict limitations, the court noted that Republic’s ongoing failure to modernize its filtration systems created a “serious risk of harm to the environment.”
“Although relief was not granted to remediate the years of harm to Kreutz Creek caused by Republic Services, the civil penalty imposed by the court provides a clear signal that neglecting responsibility to protect our waterways will be met with severe consequence,” said Ted Evgeniadis, executive director of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association. “Our freshwater resources are fragile, and no company, big or small, has the right to poison the waters which belong to the people of Pennsylvania.”
