The McKean Landfill in Sergeant Township is growing, with the potential to be more than 25 times larger than it is currently.
“The landfill already has a permitted expansion,” explained spokesman Joseph Fusco, responding by email from the company’s Vermont headquarters, “and currently has enough capacity for up to 20 years.”
That capacity, via permitted expansion, is over 30 million cubic yards of permitted airspace (space yet to be filled); currently, the landfill is at 1.2 million metric ton capacity.
“The McKean Landfill is being developed to eventually accept municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition debris (C&D) from what is primarily our service area in New England, upstate New York and Pennsylvania,” Fusco said.
Currently, he explained, most of the waste at the landfill “originates in McKean County and surrounding counties in Pennsylvania, and from the southern tier of New York state.”
In the fourth quarter of 2020 earnings call, the transcript of which is available online, CEO John Casella spoke of the company being well positioned, with the McKean Landfill space, to fill in with the pending closure of the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority facility in Connecticut.
According to trade publication Waste Dive, “The McKean expansion could potentially help position the site to be able to take on some of the 700,000 tons of waste that once went to MIRA, or take advantage of side effects from that closure.”
A Casella investor presentation last year indicated the McKean landfill was rated to accept 312,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste. A message sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection seeking current information was not immediately returned.
The Waste Dive article continued, quoting John Casella as saying the closure of the Connecticut facility, “along with other supply and demand imbalances in the Northeast, could mean a rise in disposal prices throughout the region by somewhere between 5% and 6%.”
A message sent to Fusco seeking comment about rates was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
At the McKean County Planning Office, Laura Lord said they’ve seen nothing yet regarding a landfill expansion.
“There’s been talk but there’s nothing presented to us yet,” she said.
Casella bought the landfill in 2011 from Rustick LLC, which was in bankruptcy. The price was $500,000, along with the assumption of contractual obligations.
According to a release from Casella in 2011, the roughly 230 acre landfill is permitted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to accept 1,000 tons per day of MSW by truck and 5,000 tons per day by rail.
