Farmington Township landfill inspector William Hall said at the May 7 township meeting that loads of waste were still arriving and being placed at various spots at the landfill to bring the contours of the facility to the final configuration.

The company will then cap the landfill, placing a final earthen seal on the wastes; permission from PennDOT is needed to cross Arnold Avenue with heavy trucks and equipment to move the capping material in from a borrow pit to the south.

Hall said landfill management may carry out capping operations during the night as well as the day, and they are asking the township if noise might be a concern; if noise is a problem, work will not be done at night.

Landfill manager Mike Culp told the Clarion News he expects construction of the cap could begin in mid-June and be completed by the end of this fall, if all goes well.

The PennDOT permit needed is pending, but he expects it will be approved.

The capping work will be done by an outside contractor, Culp said, and bid invitations for the work have been issued.

There are 10 employees now handling waste disposal operations at the landfill; Culp said all will be laid off when disposal ceases, though a few may be kept on past May 30 to wrap things up.

Once the contractor finishes the capping operation, Allied Waste’s Closed Site Group will take over, operating the leachate treatment system, the landfill gas extraction system and surface and ground water monitoring equipment for a period of 30 years.

Landfill officials have said they expect only a treatment plant operator to be present on a frequent basis at the site after closing is complete.

The landfill is on the site of a surface coal mine that was used for decades and an unofficial, illegal dump.

The site was turned into a small landfill known as the Kinnear Landfill in the early 1980’s, then was taken over and expanded into County Landfill in the early 1990’s, despite heavy community opposition.

The facility went through some changes of ownership before Allied Waste purchased the facility.

A proposal to expand the landfill also met with community opposition, and in recent years the landfill dropped those plans, announced it would close the disposal facility, and sold off its waste collection operation to Veolia Environmental Solutions.