Grand Central Landfill to host public meetings on $42M expansion plan

With potential approval of its landfill expansion looming, waste disposal company Grand Central Sanitary Landfill of Plainfield Township, plans to host several meetings to inform the public about the project.

Grand Central is asking the township to rezone 211 acres of land adjacent to the company’s solid waste area to support an 81-acre expansion in the Slate Belt region of the township, a largely rural area of Northampton County.

The meetings will be held:

• March 18 at 6 p.m. at the Plainfield Township Fire Hall
• March 19 at 1 p.m. at the Wind Gap Social Hall
• March 19 at 6 p.m. at Lookout Fire Company’s new social hall

The current landfill is off Route 512, and the proposed expansion area is along Pen Argyl and Delabole roads.

The initial cost of the project, including construction and engineering, is about $42 million, said Adrienne Fors, community relations manager for Waste Management. Grand Central is one of 300 disposal facilities owned by Waste Management.

Grand Central also completed real estate studies, health risk assessments and traffic planning studies to prepare for the expansion, noting that the three neighboring communities, Plainfield, Wind Gap and Pen Argyl, would earn more than $100 million in fees from the landfill over the 20-year lifespan of the expansion, she said. Annually, that amounts to about $3 million to those three communities.

On Feb. 20, the company filed an application with the township to request that 211 acres of land zoned for farm and forest use be rezoned for solid waste processing and disposal.

The acreage is part of a larger land purchase of 36 parcels that includes 325 acres the company wants to buy from Slate Spring Farms LLC.

The property is under agreement, she added.

The proposed eastern expansion includes an 81-acre waste disposal area, about 52 acres for support activities and 192 acres of woods and wetlands that would remain untouched and serve as a buffer between the site and the community. A decision on the rezoning request could take up to a year, Fors said.

After that, the company would have to obtain conditional-use approval from the township and

submit an application to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The landfill has fewer than eight years of operating life remaining, but the company cannot apply to the state for an expansion permit until it reaches five years, she said. If the project obtains all necessary approvals, it would be at least six to seven years before any construction could start.

“You really have to plan ahead and that’s why we are starting now,” Fors said.

If approved, the expansion would have a 20-year lifespan. The company’s last expansion was 109 acres, she added.

The maximum height of the landfill is capped at 980. The site is currently at about 965 feet, said Joe Statile, district manager for Grand Central.

The company is not increasing the amount of waste it accepts, and will continue to operate as it has, he said.

The land the company wants to use is mostly farmland with about three or four rented houses along Pen Argyl Road that would have to be demolished.

If the company’s request is denied, the landfill would close, Statile said.

“We would have to weigh the options, ultimately if we have nowhere to go and we can’t get anything approved, it’s closure,” Statile said.

About 60% of the waste the landfill receives comes from Pennsylvania, with the bulk coming from Northampton, Lehigh and Monroe counties, Fors said. It services five counties but is permitted to accept waste from 12 counties.

The company, which serves both businesses and municipalities, can take 3,000 tons per day and for the past year has accepted about 2,400 tons per day, Fors said. The company does not accept hazardous waste.

Grand Central has about 200 employees in Plainfield Township, including its two business units, the landfill and onsite hauling service.

About 85% to 90% of its workforce is from the Slate Belt.

The landfill is also home to the Green Knight Energy Center, a gas-to-energy facility managed and operated by employees of the landfill. The profits from the operation of the building go to the Green Knight Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit that uses landfill gas to make green energy sold onto the regional power grid by the nonprofit, which reinvests those profits back into the community, Statile said.

The funds have benefited economic development projects and scholarships for the community, Fors said.

The county’s top official declined to comment about the expansion.

“Northampton County has no legal role in the approval process for the expansion,” said Lamont McClure, Northampton County executive, in a statement. “Northampton County has no current or prospective conservation easements that would be materially impacted and the county does not anticipate taking a position.”