News & Events

Apex takes what Coast can't handle

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AMSTERDAM - The Apex Landfill has been open for business since Nov. 28, completing a saga that dates back more than a decade and involved different companies and different residents who opposed the landfill.

The landfill, situated on a 1,285-acre site, initially was being developed by a group of local businessmen, but wound up in the ownership of Liberty Waste Services LLC of Pittsburgh. Liberty serves East Coast customers by providing rail containers, transfer and transport to the Ohio landfills, where it also provides for transfer from the rails and disposal in the landfills.

Liberty acquired Apex in December 2004 and spent the ensuing months completing the work of developing the landfill, which already was permitted and licensed through the state of Ohio.

"We identified an opportunity with an existing landfill that needed development, with rail access and the permits in place. We acquired it and started construction," said Stephen M. Callahan, director of operations for Liberty Waste Services. He described Liberty as being a kind of "cradle to grave" handler of solid waste, taking it from collection to burial in the landfills. He said the waste being taken at Apex from the rail cars originates in places from Philadelphia to Boston.

"They have a problem with disposal and that allows Ohio to benefit with jobs and revenue," he said.

There is some local garbage headed to Apex now, but Callahan said the majority is the East Coast business.

Apex pays $1 per ton to the Jefferson-Belmont Solid Waste District for its operation and programs, and $2 for some waste categories. $3.50 per ton is paid to the state, and Springfield Township nets a quarter per ton.

Apex, he said, is currently accepting about 750 tons a day on average, but it is permitted to accept as much as 5,250 tons per day. Though the landfill's primary customers are East Coast cities with waste being taken into the site by LIberty's rail services, Callahan said efforts are under way to develop a market with local communities.

He said Apex can provide a cost-per-ton advantage, but communities have to determine if the cost of transporting the waste there represents a savings over current arrangements. Many local communities use the Waste Management landfill at Imperial, Pa., or the Brooke County Landfill off Archer Heights.

Callahan noted the benefit that Apex is able to provide in its tipping fees to the Belmont-Jefferson Solid Waste District, as well as fees and taxes to the state and to Springfield Township.

Apex had faced a vocal opposition for years, from when it was first proposed through its permitting process, but the opposition hasn't made a statement since the landfill was opened.

"We understand the situation," Callahan said. "We understand that if you had your choice of neighbors, we're not No. 1. In fact, we're probably not No. 100. We encourage people who have questions to call us or come see the site and educate themselves on how a modern landfill is constructed and engineered."

It is built in layers to protect the surrounding environment, groundwater and streams.

A visitor to Apex will see ground tire chips on the bottom of the active landfill area, which currently is a 15-acre cell. Under the chips is a 16-oz. nonwoven fabric liner under which is a plastic liner. Then there is a layer of geosynthetic clay, and under it all is a 3-foot layer of compacted clay that meets water permeability standards set by the EPA.

Liberty Waste Services owns Liberty Tire Services, which is involved in scrap tire abatement projects for the state of Ohio at several sites. The ground rubber used in the landfill comes from those projects.

There are seven groundwater monitoring wells at Apex and three test pads to demonstrate the effectiveness of the landfill's liner and cover systems, as well as roads built to reduce dust. Much of the work remaining to be done, in addition to construction of landfill cells, is the paving of roads from the railroad transfer area up past the scales to the dump.

There is a lower scalehouse by the railroad to weigh the containers that are transferred to truck chassis to be hauled up the hill to the landfill, and there is an office building and scalehouse at the county Road 4 entrance to the landfill for trucks coming in.

Leachate - water that passes through the landfill - is collected in a piping system that includes a half mile of pipe to a 545,000-gallon tank near the rail yard. The tank is pumped periodically into a tanker truck and taken to Steubenville for treatment and disposal in the wastewater system, said Timothy R. Loveland, the Apex general manager who is on site daily.

Apex currently employs 20 and could employ as many as 40 when it's operating at full speed sometime in 2007. Callahan said the collection and removal of the leachate, along with reclamation of the land that hadn't been properly completed from its days as a mine and quarry, actually means the water quality in the surrounding streams is improved by Apex's opening.

When Apex was hiring workers, Loveland said, there were more than 200 applications, with about 100 living within about 10 to 15 miles of the landfill.

Loveland and Callahan explained the development work that Liberty performed to get the landfill running, which cost about $65 million.

Much of the work included refurbishing about six miles of railroad, in addition to the construction of a rail yard to service Apex. The work included making a pass between hills at the site wider and removal of a narrow railroad tunnel. The rail yard includes more than 11,000 feet of track, according to Liberty's own press information.

Flatcars carry in blue 62-cubic-yard waste containers from the East Coast. Huge forklifts pull the containers off the rail cars and load them onto the back of truck chassis. The trucks then go up the hill to the landfill without ever moving onto a public road.

The trains, Callahan noted, never go north of the landfill and south of the landfill, between the Mingo Junction rail yard and Apex. The only town that is passed through is Unionport. The posted truck routes keep the traffic to the landfill away from populated areas as much as possible, keeping the trucks off county Road 78, county Road 51 and state Route 646. Liberty worked with German Township, Harrison County, to rehab a road that services the Apex area.

Construction on the buildings at the landfill was done by AJT Construction, and Valley Mining of Dennison performed the earthmoving and site development, which continues today.

Loveland said at a maximum, the site will be accepting about four trains per week. Callahan said at its currently licensed tonnage, Apex has about 15 years of useful life as currently permitted for a maximum 17.5 million cubic yards of debris. The site has the capacity to eventually hold more than 77.6 million cubic yards without the need to acquire more property.

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