Dive Brief:
- A new $151,000 odor study has been completed in San Jose, CA, which the city's Planning Commission says will help them make a decision about a planned expansion at Republic Services' Newby Island Landfill later this summer.
- Republic received approval for a permit to expand the landfill by 95 vertical feet in 2014, but that decision was appealed by local city Milpitas. The company hopes to extend the landfill's closing date from 2025 to 2041 by adding new capacity.
- In December 2015, a judge tentatively approved a class-action settlement which would require Republic to pay $2.75 million for odor mitigation upgrades and $1.2 million to households within a 1.5-miles radius of the site's composting facility. Republic has admitted no fault in this case.
Dive Insight:
Republic formed the South Bay Odor Coalition to work with government officials on the odor issue last year and has made other changes to the proposed expansion plan in response to community concerns. The size of the open face would be no more than one acre, no putrescible materials would be stored outside the composting facility, and odor-neutralizing system would be expanded.
Even with the best technology, odor at composting facilities and landfills remains an issue and is one of the most common sources of community opposition. Residents often can't see what's happening within these sites, but on a hot or windy day they can smell it.
New York's Seneca Meadows Landfill—which has also faced local resistance lately–drilled new gas collection wells, added vacuum connections, and made changes to their covering methods to help mitigate odors this year. Sometimes these odors can even cross state lines. The Tullytown Landfill in Pennsylvania was ordered to shut down due in part to community opposition from New Jersey residents who were downwind.
