Around here, residents have heard truckloads of promises.

Some have been good.

We’ve seen the promise of state funding help pay for improvements to our aging water and sewer systems. There’s been promising news to promote tourism and the growth of small businesses.

And some have been not-so-good.

Just ask someone from Palmerton, where anyone who uses Route 248 can see what is perhaps the best example of how promises can disappear.

For nearly a century, the former New Jersey Zinc operations created one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation. Its scars are still visible along Blue Mountain, not to mention the growing mounds of fill across the Lehigh River that helped contain the toxic juices that oozed from the now-razed facility

Enter Northface Industrial Park, a new project that offered the promise of warehouses, jobs and a shot in the arm for the local economy. The firm asked for tax relief that never came.

Without the ability to promise tax breaks, the developer couldn’t lure tenants.

And without the tenants, the state stepped in to rescind a $2.4 million grant that would’ve paid for roads that connected the project to the adjacent highway.

But work to fill and reclaim the property continues, and the once promising project has become a magnet for materials with questionable origins and content.

That’s the stuff that Pennsylvania Department of Environmental protection can’t ignore.

At a site that already has a history of contamination, any new projects like Northface should be treated as a potential risk before anything new happens. Not the other way around.

During a recent press conference, local environmentalists called for DEP to refuse renewal of Northface’s permit, charging that the firm is bringing in and dumping toxic fill — a practice that doesn’t benefit the overall community.

The group wants DEP to require the site be capped to protect the residents and the environment.

They cited the inconvenience caused by noise from incoming trucks and the work to spread the fill they carry.

Group members allege the work is ruining roads as well as causing foul odors.

Given the overall history of the site, their concern is understandable.

During its years of site work, Northface has become the endpoint of a parade of trucks from several places that carry material from multiple sources.

Some good, some not-so-good.

Across the state, it’s a relatively common occurrence.

Similar operations have been caught accepting fill featuring various concentrations of chromium, petroleum, lead paint, asbestos, arsenic and many other chemicals in various forms.

All of these substances are common in poorly regulated sites.

When this methyl-ethyl bad stuff — in whatever form — arrives without testing and proper paperwork, places like Palmerton are left guessing — sometimes for years — until it shows up in groundwater, storm runoff or even the air.

With that potential, DEP has the authority and the obligation to keep a closer eye on the Northface project, especially considering the location’s industrial past.

The department needs to make sure the site meets clean fill standards and not settle for results that would turn it into a waste facility.

Certainly, the idea of repurposing the land matters, just like economic development.

But none of that should come at the cost of repeating mistakes of Palmerton’s past.

Moving forward, the call for DEP to not renew the Northface permit is at best a bit extreme.

But renewing it without strict oversight would be reckless. DEP shouldn’t rubber-stamp anything until Northface proves — not promises — that every load is clean fill.

Overall, the Northface project may turn out to be harmless.

The folks in Palmerton can only hope that’ll happen.

Unlike fill material, hope — unfortunately — can’t be regulated.

Palmerton has already paid a hefty price for trusting the wrong promises.

It shouldn’t have to pay again as it waits for something more promising to come along.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 45 years’ experience in community journalism.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.