Videos show moments before, after landslide at Greentree Landfill

KERSEY – Cell phone videos from the day of the landslide at Greentree Landfill show the minutes proceeding and after the collapse.

6 News obtained four videos from a source who understands the daily operations at the Elk County landfill.

One video taken minutes before the collapse shows gas billowing out from the landfill cell that eventually collapsed, said the source.

The audio captured throughout the four videos, he said, is radio communications between those working on or near the cell.

“Holy (expletive),” a worker said in the one cell phone video shot before the collapse. “I can see it moving as we’re sitting here.”

During the “before the collapse” video, Greentree employees are purportedly talking to each other about problems at the landfill while still working on it.

“You good to go, Ryan?” asked one worker.

“Yeah, yeah. Just waiting to get down off the hill here,” another worker answered back.

“Okay,” said the first person.

“Hopefully not going sliding down off the hill with the whole pile,” said the second person.

Towards the end of the four-minute long video, two presumed workers are speaking.

“Watch yourself,” one employee said before cutting out for a second. “When you get up there on your driver’s side, the whole banks starting to go off.”

“The driver’s side?” a different worker answers back.

“Yeah, your driver’s side. You want to stay on your passenger’s side. The bank’s starting to give away,” said the first employee.

“Ten-four,” answered the second worker.

“The whole cell is shifting. You can visually see it shifting,” the source said about the video.

6 News first reported in May on a crack reportedly four to five feet wide by 100 feet long seen in the active disposal area. That information obtained in state inspection records, which also showed employees reportedly knew of cracks forming around the site.

The area is seen throughout the videos, said the source.

State and federal agencies are still investigating what caused the landslide in February that killed William Pierce, a Greentree employee.

These videos are different than the dash camera videos 6 News reported on last Friday, which state investigators asked Advanced Disposal to turn over.

Some of the discussions heard on tape are hard to make out as equipment can be heard in the background.

In the video shot before the collapse, one person can be heard questioning if he should continue to tip into the cell. Tipping is an act of disposing of waste at a landfill from a truck.

“I don’t think I should be tipping in,” the person said before the audio breaks up for a few seconds, “because that whole thing is moving when I tip.”

Another worker responded back telling the person to be ready to be picked up. It is not known at this time the identity of the employees speaking on the videos.

“People [are] talking continuously for the last hour of the movement that they could visibly see the working face of what was going on,” said the source. “And [there] were supervisors that were noticing this and they were still continuing to dump trash up there.”

In another video, a tarp liner appears torn in the foreground as trash mixed in a brownish material extrudes out. A few seconds later, as the video moves along, the background is seen with the outline of machinery barely made out on the top of the hillside.

“You could actually see things moving and they’re still calling trucks up onto the landfill, the working face. They call it the working face is where you dump your trash,” said the source. “And they were still telling trucks to come up and visible cracks opening up on the surface up there at the time they were telling trucks to come up.”

The source said the videos were provided to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Advanced Disposal responded to 6 News' request for comment:

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