Landfill reaching capacity; engineers recommend expansion

COLUMBUS — Engineers have told the city of Columbus that its landfill will run out of space in three years.

The Columbus Dispatch reports engineers say the city had three options: expand the landfill, close it and open a new one or get out of the trash dumping business.

Neel-Schaffer Engineering project manager Steve Cockerham said the company recommends expanding the present landfill.

City chief operations officer David Armstrong said the landfill is permitted through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality through 2016.

“We’re running out of time,” Armstrong said. “It’s always a terminal situation. When we started talking about this last year, we knew our permit would be running out soon. We asked Neel-Schaffer to do a study and present their finding and they did. The committee has met but we have not made any initial decisions. We are keeping our options open.”

Councilman Kabir Karriem said one option could be to get advice from other engineers,

“We want to look at all of our options for this project and see if another engineering firm could do it better or cheaper,” he said.

Armstrong said the landfill in East Columbus is a 16-acre cell and that about five acres is currently being used.