GROVE CITY State denies landfill permit

The company failed to adequately address how it would prevent bird problems at the nearby airport.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has denied Tri-County Landfill Inc.'s application to reopen its landfill in Pine and Liberty townships.
James Rozakis, DEP regional director, said the decision was made Tuesday and a letter was sent to Tri-County Wednesday. It was still the proximity of the Grove City Airport that caused the state's latest rejection, he said.
The landfill was closed in 1990 when it couldn't meet new state regulatory requirements, and the company has been trying ever since to get a new permit. One version was rejected in 1997 because of the proximity of the airport and the danger that birds attracted to the landfill would pose to aircraft.Still a problem: That same concern was the primary factor in this week's denial, Rozakis said.
"Tri-County failed to demonstrate that the benefits of this facility clearly outweigh the known and potential environmental harms," he said. "Of most concern was the potential hazard of bird strikes on aircraft using the Grove City Airport. The applicant did not satisfactorily address this hazard."
Tri-County has 30 days to appeal the decision before the state's Environmental Hearing Board.
The rejection doesn't affect the company's continued operation of a municipal waste transfer station at the site, which falls under a separate state permit, said Freda Tarbell, DEP spokeswoman.
The DEP never got to do a technical review of the landfill plan.
State municipal waste regulations require that a harm/benefit analysis be done first and that a landfill clearly show that the benefits outweigh the potential harms before the review goes any further.
Tri-County failed to do that, Rozakis said.
Other harms: In addition to the airport issue, the state found other harms, such as heavy truck traffic, community and aesthetic impacts and air quality impacts that prompted the rejection, he said.
Barring a successful appeal, Tri-County will have to formally close the old landfill under a November 1990 settlement approved by the Environmental Hearing Board. That will include placing a synthetic cap over six acres of the landfill filled between 1988 and 1990, Tarbell said. She noted that the remaining 36 acres has an earthen cap, all that was required before 1988.
Tri-County wanted to operate a 99-acre site under its latest plan, which included digging up and reburying waste in the old landfill, using synthetic liners. The company said the landfill would eliminate the potential for water pollution, clean up old strip mine waste piles, generate electricity by burning methane gas and put $100 million into the local economy over its 10-year life span.