On December 28, the Department of Environmental Protection announced it has approved Tri-County Landfill Inc.’s application to reissue a permit to operate a municipal waste landfill in Liberty and Pine townships, Mercer County.

This approval allows Tri-County Inc. to construct a new landfill, known as “Tri-County Landfill,” within the previous 99-acre permitted boundary of the landfill Tri-County, which had stopped operating in the late 1980s.

The waste in old, unlined disposal areas at the former landfill (approximately 1,551,000 cubic yards) will be excavated and relocated onto new, lined, and monitored disposal cells.

The landfill will operate with a daily volume of up to 4,000 tons per day of waste received and a total proposed capacity of 10,289,100 cubic yards or approximately 7,565,515 tons.

The landfill would operate 24 hours a day, six days a week (Monday through Saturday), but will only dispose of putrescible waste, such as household garbage, during nighttime hours to reduce the attraction of birds in the area of the nearby Grove City Airport.

“DEP carefully reviewed the information contained in the permit applications, asked many questions and were eventually satisfied that Tri-County provided sufficient information to meet the regulatory requirements for approval,” said James Miller, director of the DEP Northwest Regional Office. “We gave careful consideration to the comments received from residents and Liberty and Pine Townships and made sure Tri-County’s application addressed those concerns.”

Tri-County made this latest application for re-issuance of a permit in December 2018. A public hearing was held on Wednesday, October 16, 2019, at the Grove City High School to take testimony from residents. A 30-day comment period followed where DEP accepted written comments and subsequently prepared a comment/response document.

Tri-County has also applied for additional permits associated with water discharges, wetlands and air emissions at the landfill. Operation at the landfill will not begin until Tri-County has all permits approved by the DEP.

Media questions should be directed to Tom Decker, DEP Northwest Regional Office, 814-332-6615 or send email to: thomadecke@pa.gov.

[Posted: December 28, 2020]

1/4/2021