Rules, operating
costs force PA counties to sell landfills
Counties in Pennsylvania are selling their landfills to private companies rather than
face stricter rules for operating them.
A Westmoreland County agency sold a Greensburg area landfill in November, and three
counties in the central part of the state plan to turn their dump over to an operator from
Massachusetts.
Both deals continue a trend that began when Pennsylvania adopted tougher environmental
standards for waste disposal in the late 1980s. As many counties and municipalities are
finding it harder to profit or even break even in the landfill business, the number of
landfills in the state has dwindled from about 1,200 a decade ago to 51 today.
"It is quite expensive to construct and operate the state-of-the-art facilities
that we have today," said Christina Novak, of the state Department of Environmental
Protection.
Rules now call for landfill operators to line containment areas with two layers of
high-tech plastic to keep waste from leaking into the soil and polluting groundwater
supplies. And managers need to be trained in engineering or science to run the facilities
effectively, Novak said.
For some counties and elected officials, the changes have proven too costly.
Waste Systems International Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., agreed to pay at least $5.7
million for a landfill owned jointly by Huntingdon, Bedford and Fulton counties.
"We should never have been in the landfill business," Harold Lockhoff, a
Huntingdon County commissioner, said. "This looks like a good deal to me."
Waste Systems, which already operates a landfill 30 miles south of Bennington, Vt.,
made a down payment of $100,000 in November 1997. It won’t assume responsibility for
environmental damage at an older part of the landfill that includes four waste-gathering
areas without protective liners.
Contingencies in the contract could increase the sale price to as much as $10.5
million. The deal is expected to be completed before next April, said Scott Gill, an
attorney for the current owners.
Commissioners from the three counties decided to sell the site last fall after failing
to obtain legal guarantees that local towns would supply enough garbage to make it
profitable.
The commissioners, who make up the Tri-County Solid Waste Agency, turned down offers
from other companies that wanted to operate but not own the landfill, which is in
Langdondale in Bedford County.
Westmoreland County sold the sanitary landfill in Rostraver Township for related
financial reasons.
"It was time for them to get out of the landfill business," said Betsy
Mallison, another DEP spokeswoman. "I don’t think they were making a whole lot
of money there."
Westmoreland Waste LLC, which is owned mostly by a real estate firm in Monongahela,
bought the landfill on November 13, 1997. It agreed to reduce chronic methane gas
emissions at the site as part of the deal.
Compiled with help from Waste Dynamics news services.
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