By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
At the current rate of use, Wood County Landfill will be out of permitted dumping space in five years.
In preparation for that deadline, the county commissioners applied for an expansion permit from the Ohio EPA in 2018. The county is still waiting.
On Tuesday, engineers with Hull & Associates presented an update on expansion plans to the county commissioners.
“Once it’s approved you’ll have over 100 years of disposal capacity,” said Angie Gerdeman, senior project manager with Hull.
The county has ample acreage for the next century – with 42 acres at the front of the landfill site west of Bowling Green being dumped in since 1972. The planned expansion will cover another 59 acres to the north.
“The commissioners bought that land years ago,” Wood County Administrator Andrew Kalmar said. “They knew the county would need it.”
Gerdeman said she expects the permit to be approved by the EPA.
“There are no anticipated hiccups. We’re not asking for any exemptions,” she said.
Commissioner Doris Herringshaw noted the importance of keeping the county landfill in business.
“People are pretty dependent on it – so we’re going to be in this business for a while,” Herringshaw said. “We need to do it right.”
For that reason, the county started the expansion permit process before it became a crisis.
“We have a plan to keep ahead of it in order to keep it a viable place,” Kalmar said. “A lot of people depend on this.”
The initial expansion will take place in four cells, which combined will create another 15 years of dumping space. The first cell – which will provide about four years of space – will cost an estimated $3 million to complete.
The expansion will require new groundwater monitoring wells and a stormwater management pond.
The new landfill space will extend 30 feet below the ground surface. In order to preserve the integrity of the liner, a “fluff layer” will cover the first five feet of the cell bottom. Gerdeman explained that items like concrete, construction materials and large appliances will not be allowed in that first layer.
If all goes as planned, the permit to install will be approved by the EPA this fall, then next year new groundwater wells will be installed to collect background data, Gerdeman said.
Following the EPA approval of the plans, there will be a public comment period and a public hearing.
The bidding process will follow in the fall of 2022.
Then in 2023, the landfill will prepare for construction, by abandoning gas vents and existing groundwater wells. Construction could begin that spring, and be completed by September.
In place of the gas vents currently used at the site, the expansion area will have a gas collection system, which can be used to generate electricity, Gerdeman said.
The county has discussed that possibility in the past, but the gas production wasn’t sufficient to do so, Kalmar said.
“You should get very good gas production” from the new acreage, Gerdeman said. “New waste generates a lot of gas.”
Landfill superintendent Matt Limes commented that electricity generated at the site could work well with the wind turbines already located at the landfill.
The $3 million expansion will likely be paid from the county’s general fund, with landfill fees then paying off the debt. No fee increases have been discussed, Kalmar said.
The Wood County Landfill’s local fees of approximately $45 per ton have not changed for 25 years, he said. State fees, however, have been tacked on during that period. The minimum cost per load is $17. That compares to close to $50 at Waste Management, Limes said.
“We help keep the prices down at other places,” he said.
