Noble Environmental closed a $100 million bond financing round backed by the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority last week, the company announced. The funding allows the company to pursue improvements in and around several assets it’s accrued across the state in recent years, including a rail project.
“The transaction was significantly oversubscribed. The successful closing of the bonds reflects Noble’s strong growth, recent execution and bright future,” Nick Stork, executive chairman of Noble, said in a statement.
Noble Environmental did not respond to requests for additional comment about the bond deal. A public hearing notice published by the PEDFA in April showed Noble was planning to spend up to $250 million on improvements across eight facilities in the state. A spokesperson for the agency overseeing the bonding authority confirmed that Noble chose to pursue a more scaled-back total under that agreement, but the company can seek additional funding at a later date.
Noble Environmental, a private company, was founded in 2016 and began serving parts of western Pennsylvania with the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill. It soon grew via the acquisition of another landfill on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border and a growing hauling network.
It expanded its portfolio significantly when WM acquired Advanced Disposal Services in late 2020 — the deal triggered a long list of divestitures, including three landfills in Pennsylvania and one in Maryland that Noble acquired. GFL Environmental acquired the remainder of the divestitures, but dealt the Greentree Landfill to Noble in 2022.
Following those deals, Noble became one of the largest private haulers in Pennylsvania. The latest funding round gives the company runway to further drive revenue from its assets.
In his statement last week, Stork noted plans to expand the company’s renewable natural gas assets. That would build on an agreement Noble made last year with Clean Energy Fuels to construct and supply an RNG fueling station. The station would receive gas from the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill and fuel 50 of Noble’s sanitation trucks, according to a release.
Noble is also pursuing projects around Greentree, its largest landfill. The facility was first permitted in 1986, and its most recent permits are valid through 2028. It can accept up to 6,000 tons of waste per day, according to state records.
Much of that waste comes from states such as New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and all of it is shipped by truck. But Noble is exploring building a rail spur connected to the landfill through subsidiary Lampwrights in order to shift that waste off the streets and onto tracks.
The line would stretch nearly four miles across Elk and Jefferson counties in Pennsylvania and would be operated by the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad. It would handle one inbound train and one empty outbound train per week, according to agency documents. The line connects to the O-I Crenshaw Glass facility.
The rail project is currently pending approval by the federal Surface Transportation Board, which this summer allowed Noble to proceed with an environmental assessment rather than a more lengthy environmental impact statement for the project.
On a visit to the proposed site in June, Surface Transportation Board staff said the project would be mostly within a former railway bed known as the Toby Branch, "reducing the potential for construction-related disturbance to environmental or cultural resources." They also noted "minimal concerns regarding the project" after doing preliminary outreach to relevant agencies and tribes.
But some local officials around the proposed project have expressed consternation over potential impacts.
In a letter to the Surface Transportation Board, supervisors in Horton Township said the proposed railway crosses important infrastructure like a sewer line that could not withstand train traffic. It also crosses streams, some of which are connected to wetlands that may be subject to protection. The supervisors also said the line's planned crossing of State Route 219 could cut first responders living in the town from the fire station and students from their school, impeding important traffic flows.
Some residents have also objected to the plans, including some who own property abutting the Toby Branch and may have built structures that would need to be removed in order to make way for the new rail line.
The company is also pursuing a facility named the Brockway Transload Facility connected to rail in nearby Snyder Township. The facility would remove waste containers from train cars using an existing rail spur and load them onto trucks for final transportation to the landfill, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Michael Holt, chairman of Snyder’s board of supervisors, said local officials met with DEP staff this summer about the project, and he expects it will move forward so long as Noble operates within its permits.
The DEP has scheduled a public meeting regarding the Brockway Transload Facility for Oct. 9.
Outside of Pennsylvania, Noble Environmental also pursued a $100 million bond package with the Columbiana County Port Authority in Ohio related to efficiency improvements in its Penn Ohio landfill, which accepts C&D waste. In May, the authority’s board of directors approved preliminary agreements related to the deal. An official told Salem News at the time that it could be 12 to 18 months before Noble comes back with an update on the project.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit brought by shareholders against Noble Environmental remains in arbitration. Last year, minority investor Michael Schatzow brought legal action against Noble's leadership, alleging they shirked their fiduciary duties to the company by exploring business opportunities with Archaea Energy — which they also founded — that should have come to Noble. Archaea Energy sold to BP for $4.1 billion in 2022. The two sides in the lawsuit are scheduled to update the court later this month.
