When U.S. Rep. Summer Lee visited South Huntingdon’s Yukon neighborhood last summer, she sat with families to hear their concerns about decades of potentially toxic pollution from the nearby MAX Environmental Technologies landfill.
This week, Lee, D-Swissvale, announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would begin sampling residential drinking wells near the hazardous waste treatment site and landfill starting this spring.
“Residents in Yukon and surrounding communities have been raising concerns about their water and their health for years, and they deserve answers,” Lee said.
The testing comes amid ongoing federal scrutiny of the MAX site, where a 2023 EPA inspection identified multiple violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In 2024, EPA ordered the company to address hazardous waste risks and come back into compliance with federal law. It was the subject of two EPA consent orders issued in April and September 2024.
MAX officials told TribLive over the summer that they’d fully complied with the consent orders, and underwent an independent audit by an EPA-approved consultant that concluded the company was acceptably treating and testing waste.
“We have complied with the EPA consent orders and have made significant progress in addressing the action items in those consent orders to EPA’s satisfaction,” said MAX Vice President for Environmental Health and Safety Carl Spadaro.
Lee said she was happy that concerned families in the area are seeing action by the EPA.
“When I visited Yukon, I walked the waterways and toured the hazardous waste sites along with families who’ve been fighting for their community for decades,” Lee said. “Their organizing, their persistence and their refusal to be ignored made this possible.”
During Lee’s visit in August 2025, residents described living with chronic respiratory illnesses, elevated cancer rates and the inability to use their own properties safely. One resident explained that it has become “normal” to stay indoors on windy days to avoid breathing in contaminated dust.
MAX Environmental has been cited by South Huntingdon and the state Department of Environmental Protection and fined for violating ordinances regarding odors and dust.
According to EPA officials, the water sampling will be conducted at no cost to homeowners, and will take up to an hour per home. Results will be sent confidentially to homeowners, and the agency will determine afterward whether additional action is necessary.
Homeowners must sign an access agreement granting EPA officials permission to access their property and collect samples. The agreement is available online at ShortURL.at/zIswb.