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Ohio EPA will hold hearing on expansion of Apex Landfill near Amsterdam

Landfill requests daily intake permission to rise from 7,500 tons to 10,000 tons

AMSTERDAM –The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public information session at 6 p.m. on Dec. 13 regarding the Apex Sanitary Landfill located in Jefferson and Harrison counties.

The information session will be immediately followed by a public hearing at the VFW Post 232 at 412 Liberty St.

The OEPA has issued a draft permit to install to the Apex Sanitary Landfill that will allow the facility to increase its daily waste intake from 7,500 tons to 10,000 and create an additional 61,093,000 cubic yards of approved disposal capacity.

The remaining life of the landfill will be increased to 17.9 years, Jefferson County Health Department Administrator Bruce Misselwitz announced at the county board of health meeting in November.

“We still have odor issues out there. The dump was sold to the people on the promise of a limited time permit. Now the landfill is going to expand its operations and increase its life span. It is sad the only economic development is a dump. The people out there were deceived by the initial talk of a limited life span,” board member Dale Feathingham said at the November meeting.

The municipal solid waste landfill is located at 11 County Road 78, Amsterdam, and is owned and operated by Apex Environmental LLC, a subsidiary of the Prophet Equity Group.

According to OEPA spokesperson Paula Payne, the OEPA staff will explain the permitting process and provide an overview of the permit application. The agency will respond to questions about the proposed lateral and vertical expansions and the proposed increase to the authorized maximum daily waste receipt.

If the landfill’s application is approved, the landfill would have a total capacity of 83.6 million cubic yards within 288.5 acres. Approximately 15.2 million cubic yards of capacity has been filled within the developed 99.2 acres of the currently permitted 117.5 acres.

Payne said the landfill is currently permitted to accept 7,500 tons of waste per day.

Apex is seeking to increase the amount of waste accepted on a daily basis to 10,000 tons.

In 2015, the landfill’s average daily waste receipt was 1,877 tons. Since waste delivery by rail resumed last April, the landfill’s daily waste receipt has averaged 3,694 tons.

Anyone can submit comments or request to be on a mailing list to receive notice regarding further action on the proposed permit-to-install application and draft permit by writing to: Ohio EPA, Division of Materials and Waste Management, Administrative Processing Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049.

To be considered as part of the public record, comments must be received by Dec. 20.

Materials related to this expansion request are available for review online and at the Ohio EPA Southeast District Office, 2195 E. Front St., Logan, by calling (740) 385-8501 to make an appointment, or at the Jefferson County General Health District, 500 Market St., 7th Floor, Steubenville, by calling (740) 283-8530 to make an appointment.

The landfill was cited for non-compliance for 10 issues in July by the county health board but was declared in compliance one month later.

“They bought eight dozers, two compactors, three new rock trucks, six tri-axle trucks repaired one water truck and purchased a second water truck. The landfill is now in the process of opening a new cell and putting in new gas wells and now have 92 employees.They also put up a litter fence at the top of their cell because of the windy conditions we have had and the current cell face is much smaller,” said Carla Gampola of the health department at the August board meeting.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com)

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