The state is seeking responses to an East Huntingdon landfill operator’s air quality plan for handling emissions from a proposed 82-acre disposal site. Approving the plan would extend the life of the 620-acre landfill outside Scottdale by 18 years.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is taking comments until Dec. 25 on its intention to approve Greenridge Reclamation LLC’s air quality plan that estimates the levels of various gases — carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, sulfur oxide and hydrogen oxide — that would be emitted from the landfill.

Greenridge already operates under an existing air quality permit and is in compliance with DEP rules and regulations. The air quality permit application “is merely one regulatory step in a lengthy expansion process,” said Republic Services Inc. of Phoenix, the parent company of Greenridge Reclamation.

The DEP in Pittsburgh has not received any public comments or requests for a public hearing as of Tuesday, said Lauren Camarda, a DEP spokeswoman.

A new waste disposal area at the landfill is needed because the current permitted disposal area could be filled in less than two years, Republic Services said in a statement. The proposed expansion would not alter the grade of the landfill, nor would it substantively affect tonnage, Republic said. Greenridge Reclamation estimated to DEP that it could dispose of 2,500 tons of waste daily for 286 days a year, equal to about 715,000 tons of waste a year at the new storage site.

The annual projected tonnage of waste is its current tonnage cap, the company said.

Greenridge Reclamation applied to the DEP in December 2020 for an air quality permit to add 15.8 million cubic yards of storage capacity to dump household, construction, demolition and approved residual industrial waste. Republic is permitted to store 11.8 million tons of waste in several cells on the site with a storage capacity of 17.7 million tons.

Seeking more leachate tanks

With the additional waste to be stored in the new dump site, the company is proposing to build two 500,000-gallon tanks to hold the leachate that runs off the landfill, which already has a two million-gallon capacity to hold leachate in four holding tanks. Greenridge Reclamation also said it would invest in stormwater and gas collection systems.

Once the company demonstrates that it has complied with air quality plan, the plan will become part of its operating permit, the state said. That plan has been designed to comply with all environmental regulations, including emission restrictions, testing and monitoring.

East Huntingdon has not taken any position on Greenridge Reclamation’s air quality plan, said Joel Suter, chairman of the township supervisors.

The odors from the landfill are not as bad in recent years as have been in the past, according to Suter.

“You used to get it two to three times a week. It is very, very seldom that you get a hint of anything,” in terms of a bad smell, Suter said.

When it does occur, Suter said the township contacts Greenridge Reclamation or the DEP.

Suter noted that Greenridge Reclamation wants to capture the methane emitted from the landfill’s waste. Republic has flares on the site to burn methane.

The DEP noted that Ameresco Inc. of Framingham, Mass., has proposed building a natural gas processing facility at the site. Those plans will be reviewed separately.

The DEP can’t speculate on a timeline for a final decision on the air quality plant “because we can’t anticipate what comments DEP may receive from the public or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and if that may prompt changes to the plan approval,” Camarda said.

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