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NEGLEY -- When PennOhio Waste had trash sitting in over 100 rail cars near Signal in December, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) gave them a 60-day unloading order to temporarily solve the issue.
Without the proper permits or space to continue dumping the construction and demolition debris to the Negley landfill, the waste was disposed of at either Elkrun Industries or the Westmoreland landfill in Pennsylvania.
After being issued a surface water permit-to-install and two air permits to install and operate at the end of April, the Signal location will resume serving as the offload site for PennOhio. As a stipulation of the permit, the waste that is being offloaded must continue to be taken to Elkrun Industries or the Westmoreland landfill.
In order for the waste to be taken to the Negley site again, County Commissioner Tim Weigle said that PennOhio would have to get the proper permits, complete all of the necessary changes and ask for a modification of the conditions.
"They would have to finish constructing the expansion and clay liner and have the EPA sign off and certify it," Weigle said. "Once they get that finished, they would be able to start filling the expansion with CDD material."
While Weigle thinks PennOhio has every intention of expanding the Negley site to keep it running, he believes that the Signal site will remain to be the offloading site for a few reasons.
"Because of the offload being so close to the residents with the noise and dust, they want to get away from that," Weigle said. "The other thing is that the rail line going through there is so bad, and I don't know that they'd want to take the engines and cars all the way into Negley."
So, while the unloading of the rail cars in Signal began as a temporary solution, PennOhio obtained the proper permits to continue to offload at the site as a long-term solution.
Middleton Township trustee Greg Lipp said that he isn't aware of a timetable to when PennOhio will be able to use the Negley landfill again.
"The thing that has been holding them up was having a liner put in the Negley site," Lipp said. "There has been no good weather to compact soil and build that liner. They even have to have a liner for the CDD landfill now, which they never did."
Lipp said that while he doesn't know if it will last forever, the residents have been very happy since PennOhio hasn't been able to unload the rail cars in Negley.
slendak@mojonews.com