MAHONING COUNTY Landfill contract benefits Poland

Some of the money will aid a community center and the Little Red School House.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Mahoning County's new deal with Browning-Ferris Industries, which operates the Carbon Limestone Sanitary Landfill on State Line Road, will bring $520,000 to township projects over the contract's life.
The pact, approved by county commissioners Thursday, is effective through June 2013.
It gives the county 30 cents more per ton on municipal solid waste that the trash hauler brings in from beyond a 175-mile radius of the facility.
The company can bring in 500 tons more trash per day from outside of that radius but must maintain a 6,500-ton daily limit.
The township's allotments range from $80,000 this year, $70,000 in the second and third years and $60,000 in each of the remaining years of the agreement.
Projects that will get funding include improvements at the Little Red School House on U.S. Route 224 and upkeep at a community center.
Before the just-approved contract, all tipping fees collected went to the county's solid waste operation. The new fee goes to the county general fund.
"It's 30 more cents per ton to Mahoning County that it can use however it wants," said Mike Heher, the landfill's general manager.
The new agreement also calls for glossy magazines, catalogs and junk mail to be accepted through the county's curbside recycling program.
The facility
The landfill operators conducted tours Friday of the facility. Heher said he sent invitations to residents living near the site. Tours are offered annually, he added.
The landfill has its entrance over the state line in Pennsylvania, but its facility in the township started in 1963 as City Ash. BFI purchased the site in 1970, and in August 1999 Allied Waste bought it although it retains the BFI name.
The facility consists of 660 acres, and although the company owns much more land around the site, it has no interest in expanding, Heher said. He estimated that it has a 75-year life.
Methane gas, a byproduct of decomposing trash, is captured by pipes dug into wells in the landfill.
Energy Development Inc., which is based in Texas, extracts the gas from the wells, collecting it in underground pipes and directing it to a power station.
The gas is processed into fuel and sold to local utility companies, Heher said.