What should have begun years ago has finally been put into motion as the Lycoming County Commissioners approved a proposal to expand the county’s landfill.

Jay Alexander, part of the management team from the Clinton County Solid Waste Authority who the commissioners hired earlier this year to manage the county’s facility pointed out that currently there is a little over six years of capacity remaining at the landfill.

“So we’re not in a good position,” Alexander said.

“The problem is the permitting process could take up to five years, so we’re talking about a really short window, so we appreciate the commissioners reacting quickly once we’ve got this put together, and this should get us moving full speed ahead,” Alexander said.

He said that the expansion will move the landfill to the north; tie into the existing liner footprint; and fill in a triangle-shaped piece,which should add about 15 years capacity.

“DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) is aware of what we’re working on. We’ve met a couple times with them. They know what’s coming. They also have asked, why did it take this long to submit this, and we couldn’t answer that question,” he said.

Before the permitting application can be submitted to DEP, Alexander explained that about 50 groundwater wells will need to be drilled and then monitored for almost a year and then the design will have to be put together.

“Hopefully this time next year we’ll be dropping off the permit application to DEP,” he said.

“There’s a lot of work to do just to get the application put together, so we’ll do our best to expedite everything,” Alexander said.

He pointed out that in total, it could take five years to get the permit to expand and with only six years capacity remaining at the landfill, it’s “not a very comfortable window-not a good place to be in.”

“This process should have started five years ago,” he said.

“The DEP permitting process could take three to five years… they’ll work with us the best that they can, but they also have regulatory processes that they’ve got to follow…We’ve got to drill the wells, purge the groundwater wells, then monitor them for almost a year before we can even submit the application. So there’s a lot of work to do just to get ready to submit and then, with any kind of luck, it’s less than three years once DEP has it, if we do it right,”Alexander said.

At their meeting this week, the commissioners approved hiring BAI Group. LLC, an engineering group, at a cost of $317,500 and Meiser & Earl, hydrogeologists, at a cost of $300,000 to work on the landfill expansion.

Alexander said that he felt that the team being put together will be able to get the work done in time.

It was noted that the county’s landfill is really a regional facility so if operations are stopped, “this central region will be in a real jam,” Alexander said.

That’s one reason he is hopeful that DEP will work with them during the permitting process.

Commissioner Marc Sortman said that he was excited to see that the expansion proposal included ground that was already being used as opposed to moving into new areas.

“Now we get to finish what we’re doing in our original piece of ground as the management team looks forward to the next piece of ground, and we won’t delay…the opportunity of not getting the permitting done by the time we run out of space again,” Sortman said.

“So we have to be a little more aggressive, plan a little bit better, not have shocking bills that have to be paid because we didn’t plan well enough. So I’m just excited all the way around. You know, I know I say other different times about development and everything else in Lycoming County. It’s a great time to be part of Lycoming County. (The) landfill is not as exciting, but it is an exciting time for our landfill as well. We are moving it forward and preparing it for the future, because if we have nowhere to put our waste, we’re not going to get development either in our county. So it’s all coming together very nicely,” Sortman said.