Pennsylvania DEP approves first phase of landfill expansion

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has approved the environmental assessment portion of a permit application by Waste Management Inc. to expand Lake View Landfill, a municipal waste landfill in Summit Township, Erie County.

The environmental assessment, commonly referred to as the benefits-harms analysis, is the first step in DEP’s two-step landfill permit application evaluation process.

“The company has demonstrated that the benefits of the project outweigh the known and potential environmental harms,” said DEP regional director Kelly Burch. “This is the standard that landfill applicants have to meet under Pennsylvania environmental regulations to successfully close out the first phase of the permit review before DEP moves to the second phase, the technical review, which examines the design details of the application.”

Waste Management Inc. proposes to increase the existing disposal area by approximately 90 acres, expanding the landfill to the south of the existing disposal area and adding approximately 18 million cubic yards of space to the landfill.

The application does not propose any change to the landfill’s currently approved acceptance volumes of 4,600 tons per day average and 5,000 tons per day maximum. Based on the averages, expansion will provide 10 years of additional disposal capacity.