Hearing Held for Kimble Expansion Permit

Mary Alice Reporting –

Community members expressed concerns over Kimble’s Landfill expansion proposal, but no one provided recorded testimony.

The permit is currently under review by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and a Wednesday public hearing was held to gather insight from locals.

The permit is seeking to expand the 213 acre landfill, off US 39, by 23.3 acres and making the outer slope 3:1, which means that for every three steps the slope goes up one foot.

The meeting started with a slideshow presentation by Ohio EPA Communications and Outreach Coordinator Lisa Cochran providing information about the proposal and permit process. She then asked any attendees to come forward with comments that would have gone on EPA’s record.

“There are no requests to provide testimony so we will end the hearing. As a reminder, we will accept written comments through 5pm February 14^th.”

Any written comments and can still be sent to Ohio EPA DMWM P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, Ohio 43216, Attention Brian Dearth. Emailed testimony can be directed to epa.dmwmcomments@epa.ohio.gov. Ensure that permit number 06-6978 is included in any correspondence.

Attendees asked questions following the presentation with most of them related to concerns over the height and the smell.

The landfill has been in place since the 1950’s, and according to Keith Kimble, the expansion will increase the overall sites life expectancy as they take in roughly 3,000 tons of trash per day.

“So we’re going from having 30 years at the present to 38 years with this expansion. It’s a small expansion. I know it seems like a lot but it’s basically going to add ten years of life to the operation.”

Regarding the smell, Kimble noted that the waste is covered with soil and a cap to help reduce odors. The gas buildup is typically the main problem and the company, in the past year and a half, has been working on a system to instead of burning the gas, they transport it to a facility that will purify the methane, which is then compressed and sent to a Dominion Energy pipeline, and they use it to fuel most of their truck fleet.