Montana county seeks landfill expansion permit

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says it is preparing a draft environmental assessment (draft EA) regarding the proposed expansion of the Flathead County Landfill in Kalispell, Montana.

The Flathead County Solid Waste District landfill, operator of the landfill, is seeking to expand it into an adjacent 121 acres of property located south of the current landfill, which has been operating since 1971.

The DEQ says the expansion would allow the Flathead County Landfill to continue to accept Group II, Group III  and Group IV waste (referring to certain mining byproducts, municipal solid waste [MSW] and C&D materials, respectively), “alleviating the need for this waste to be transported to outside of the county for final disposal.”

In a draft version of the EA posted to the DEQ website, the agency says Flathead County intends to use up to 74 of the 121 acres in the proposed expansion area for disposal purposes.

The DEQ says the permit would authorize would allow Flathead County to “assist in [the] proper disposal of approximately 33.7 million tons of waste.”

On its website, Flathead County says it also accepts cardboard, newspapers and aluminum cans for recycling at the landfill site

The landfill in Kalispell, which is in northwest Montana about 35 miles from Glacier National Park, currently disposes of 460 tons of waste per day on average, according to the agency.

The DEQ concludes its draft EA by writing, “The proposed action would meet the minimum requirements of the [Montana] Solid Waste Management Act and associated administrative rules regulating solid waste disposal,” and that its 22-page EA represented the “appropriate level of environmental review, and preparation of an environmental impact statement is not required.”