Minnesota to allow metro landfill expansions for first time since 2003

With waste-to-energy facilities running at full capacity, Minnesota pollution officials will allow metro-area landfills to start taking on more trash for the first time in 17 years, reports the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on July 24 solicited certificates of need from landfills. The certificates are required before adding volume, expanding acreage or establishing new landfills.

That hasn’t happened since 2003, when the 340-acre Waste Management landfill in Burnsville expanded. The other household-waste landfill in the metro, Pine Bend Landfill in Inver Grove Heights, was expanded in 2002.

Peder Sandhei, principal planner for the MPCA, said it’s unlikely a new landfill would be created in the metro area. That’s because the state, counties, cities and even townships have regulations that restrict them.

More likely, Sandhei said, is that industrial waste landfills in the area would seek permission to begin accepting household garbage.

Whatever happens, landfills are only to be considered after other garbage-reduction options, such as incineration, recycling, composting and reuse, have been exhausted.

“Landfills are the last resort,” PCA Assistant Commissioner Kirk Koudelka told the Pioneer Press.

The move is welcome news for Houston-based Waste Management, which handles garbage removal for much of the metro area and has lobbied for years for landfill expansions.

The MPCA said waste-to-energy facilities reached their operating capacity in the first quarter of this year.