Conestoga Landfill Plan to Expand Sewage Treatment Plant for Leachate Dropped

This plan to build a dedicated specialized leachate treatment plant instead of extending a standard sewage treatment plant built for the quite different characteristics of landfill leachate, which is far stronger and contains far more ammonia than sewage is just common sense. What is surprising is that it has taken 2 years to establish this. I have carried out similar studies with water companies for leachate treatment projects and in only one case did it make economic sense to do this and that was because the municipality was being given an EU grant per head of population so the requested head of population equivalent was raised according to the strength of the leachate, and the EU paid whatever it cost.

Of course, for the specialist leachate treatment plant to achieve and reliable economic performance it will need to be well designed, and well implemented with quality construction. Your webmaster would be pleased to asist with that, if given the opportunity!

Please visit the original web site for the full article. The following is an extract only:

The Conestoga Landfill in New Morgan has announced that, after nearly two years of technological and financial analysis, it won't foot the bill to expand the Caernarvon Township sewage treatment plant to treat its leachate.

"Corporate decided it was too cost prohibitive and not doable," division manager Lee Zimmerman said Thursday, referring to the facility's owner, Republic Services Inc. of Phoenix.

Constructing a leachate treatment plant on the 652-acre site would cost about $10 million, while modernizing the township plant likely could double that figure, he told the Conestoga Citizens Advisory Committee at its quarterly session in the landfill offices.

Gene Bonner, the landfill's environmental manager, has said the landfill's current plant for treating eachate - a smelly black liquid that drains through and from landfills - is increasingly inadequate.

In each of the past three months, the facility has generated about 1.6 million gallons of the liquid with up to a half needing to be hauled to other treatment facilities, Zimmerman said. The state Department of Environmental Protection is not happy with that because it puts hundreds of trucks on the roads each month, he said.

Conestoga recently applied to the DEP for a building permit, which could take up to a year to clear, plus another two years for construction, he added.

"We wanted badly to partner with somebody local to make this joint treatment project work," Zimmerman said.

Committee member Thomas M. Legel, president of the Twin Valley School Board, said the added sewage capacity in Caernarvon Township could have been useful to help attract new commercial, industrial and residential development.

We understand that the landfill is the largest of four in Berks County and takes about 2,000 tons of trash a day, mainly from Philadelphia and New Jersey, and Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties, so this is a landfill of significant regional size.

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