Missouri landfill expansion permit approved

City council members in Jefferson, Missouri, have approved a special exception permit to provide an additional 3.5 million cubic yards of airspace to the Jefferson City Landfill, operated by Republic Services, KRCG reports.

The Jefferson City Landfill receives about 600 tons of waste each day and, at the current rate, would reach its air-space capacity in only a few years, according to the report.

“Our permit is for roughly 9.5 million cubic yards of airspace,” says Craig Abbott, an environmental manager with Republic Services. “If you look at it like a balloon, everything within that balloon is the airspace that’s permitted, you can’t go above it, you can’t go outside of that balloon. So, it’s permitted for 9.5 million cubic yards. We had about 1.5 million cubic yards left.”

Following the approval of the permit by Jefferson City Council, the Department of Natural Resources will begin a five-year permitting process to determine if the site meets the required state regulations for a landfill.

The expansion would increase the lifespan of the landfill by about 12 years past its current seven-year life expectancy, Abbott says. Once the landfill expansion reaches maximum capacity, he adds, Republic Services will work with local communities and the city of Jefferson to determine a long-term plan going forward, according to the story.