Strong opposition voiced to Grove City landfill plan

The Tri-County Landfill in Grove City, Mercer County, closed in 1990, and speakers at a hearing on a new permit for the facility were unanimous in their desire to keep it that way.

“This is not your father’s landfill,” said Jane Cleary, a member of the Citizens Environmental Association of the Slippery Rock Area, and one of more than two dozen people who spoke last week at the state Department of Environmental Protection hearing in opposition to reopening the landfill.

Like many of the others, Ms. Cleary said reopening the landfill — 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, near the Grove City Premium Outlets mall and the Grove City Airport — will cause problems with truck traffic, bird-plane collisions, odors, and water and air pollution.

She said landfill owner Edward R. Vogel also is seeking to increase the 40-foot height of the old landfill to more than 100 feet. He wants to expand the onetime municipal trash landfill to take in residual waste, a classification that includes construction waste, acid mine drainage sludge, and radioactive oil and gas drilling waste.

“The radioactivity from gas drilling cuttings and fracking can’t be removed,” she said, addressing the DEP officials and more than 200 attendees Wednesday.

Mr. Vogel, vice president of Vogel Holdings Inc., a family-owned business that operates a handful of landfills and several waste hauling operations, did not attend or speak at the hearing or return a phone call Thursday seeking comment.

According to a DEP fact sheet, Tri-State operated from 1950 through 1990, took in approximately 1.5 million cubic yards of municipal trash and covers 44.5 acres. The proposed landfill would dispose of up to 4,000 tons of waste off-loaded daily from more than 600 trucks; operate six days a week, 24 hours a day; and have a footprint of more than 79 acres. It could operate under the permit for 10 years.

Timothy McGonigle, a Mercer County commissioner, said reopening the landfill could also unearth long-buried toxic wastes and noted that Tri-County accepted wastes in the 1950s and ‘60s from the same sources as the nearby Osborne landfill. In 1982, Osborne landfill was declared one of the 50 worst toxic dump sites in the U.S. and was later declared a federal Superfund site.

Stephen Shields, manager of the Grove City Airport and a pilot with more than 20 years of flying experience, said the landfill he called “Trash Mountain” is less that 1.5 miles from the airport’s runway, much closer than Federal Aviation Administration rules allow because of the danger posed by birdplane collisions.

“If Trash Mountain is allowed to reopen, jet owners at the airport will move their aircraft elsewhere to avoid bird strikes,” Mr. Shields said.

“I’m very concerned. This permit should be denied,” said Carman DeRose, general manager of the Grove City Premium Outlets, which could be impacted by the additional truck traffic and odors.

The DEP will continue to accept public comments until Nov. 1. Within 45 days of the hearing, it will publish a response document addressing the questions and comments raised during the public comment period.

To make a comment or ask questions about the permit, call Joel Fair, DEP environmental engineer manager, at 814-332-6841 or email jofair@pa.gov.