Landfill plans to expand in Greene Township

The IESI Blue Ridge Landfill in Greene Township has plans to expand.

IESI has submitted plans to increase the footprint of the landfill north of Chambersburg Mall by 40 acres.

Part of the expansion would be closer to a house and private well than the 500-foot margin required by township ordinance. A hearing is set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the municipal building, 1145 Garver Lane, Scotland.

“I’m all for the expansion,” said Cody Forrester, owner of the property at 1663 Orchard Road affected by the expansion. “I’m 44 years old. I was born and raised beside a landfill. I don’t know any difference. I drink the water. I don’t seem to be any different.”

The expansion would be on the landfill’s existing 306 acres entered from White Church Road.

The township and landfill recently agreed how high the landfill can be. They settled on 904 feet above sea level, “what seems to be the historically understood vertical limit,” according to township solicitor Curt Williams.

IESI had challenged in Franklin County Court the procedure that the township used in limiting the height of structures, according to Williams. The township had acted on a 2014 Commonwealth Court ruling that a landfill was a structure. They came to a settlement in July.

Both the horizontal and vertical expansion need approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Forrester said the landfill “has always been a good neighbor.”

“If these guys were bad neighbors we’d be the first ones to know,” he said. “We’ve been through the good, the bad and the ugly. The landfill is good nowadays.”

His family sold land to the Bender family in the 1980s to establish the landfill. Neighbors had problems with blowing trash when the landfill was dug up about 15 years ago and a liner installed, he said.

Forrester said he called the township once, when the landfill did not pick up the telephone to answer his complaint about dirt on the road.  The issue was resolved quickly.

“When people react to problems that’s all people can ask,” he said. “They’ve monitored the wells for years. I don’t see a problem. I don’t have a problem with it.”

IESI over the years has won repeated requests for accelerated trash disposal at the landfill, most recently in 2014.

The public hearing about the landfill's nonconformity to the township's setback requirement will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Greene Township Building, 1145 Garver Lane, Scotland.

Jim Hook 717-262-4759