State approves Rumpke request for expansion
During the struggles of 2020, Rumpke approached the 109 Board and Pendleton County Fiscal Court about expansion of the landfill.
According to documents provided by Rumpke and presented to the 109 Board at their quarterly meeting on Wednesday, March 31, they presently are permitted 108 acres for waste disposal and seeking an expansion of it.
According to Tom Fitzpatrick, Director of the Kentucky Resources Council, the state has approved the request sent to them in October.
There are still many steps to be taken and opportunities to residents of Pendleton County to voice their support or opposition to the expansion and/or host agreement.
The Constitution of Kentucky calls for the host agreement to be competively bid and that will need to be pursued before a final decision by fiscal court is made.
The 109 board will have to conduct a public hearing and period to seek public comments and questions concerning the expansion of the landfill.
Those two steps can occur at a similar times.
The Host Agreement will be published in this paper once it is negotiated between county govenrment leaders and Rumpke.
This agreement would represent what county leaders are comfortable with in moving forward as a host site for the landfill while Rumpke accepts it from a business standpoint. Representatives from Rumpke provided information to the 109 Board on their commitment to Pendleton County.
In 2020, Rumpke paid $910,566.27 to the county’s general fund and $20,894 to the education fund. That was significantly up from 2019 when they paid $688,540.85 to the general fund and $16,274.23 to the education fund.
During the free disposal days to Pendleton County residents, 406.96 tons were disposed in 2020.
Based on anticipated tonnage, Rumpke estimates the landfill has enough airspace (disposal capacity) to operate for seven years. Under the current permit, 108 acres are permitted for waste disposal. The site accepts material from a 60-mile radius, serving 32 municipalities, 3,500 businesses and 250,000 residents.
The site recently began accepting trash from Covington Transfer Station with an increase of 400-500 tons of additional trash at the landfill per day.
In May of 2021, Rumpke will open a Scott County Transfer Station and anticipate an increase of 200-300 tons per day to the Pendleton County landfill.
Rumpke has made site improvements that include paving projects, gas collection system, a new wheel wash, and installed skimmers on the ponds.
They also provide college scholarships to Pendleton County students and have plans to implement an educational campaign to assist with the promoting of proper recycling.
The next step for Pendleton County elected leaders is determining through public hearings, questions and comments, the conditions that they wish to have in the next host agreement with Rumpke.
Those questions include not only the financial position of the county on the short term basis but the long term view on how much of the county becomes a landfill for Northern Kentucky’s trash.