5.3. & 5.4. PCSR 06-09-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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SECTION I Application Request Summary 1.1 INTRODUCTION Elk River Landfill, Inc. (ERL), awholly-owned subsidiary of Waste Management of Minnesota, Inc., owns and operates a landfill under Minnesota Solid Waste Permit Number SW-74. ERL is also licensed and permitted by both Sherburne County and the City of Elk River ("City'. The existing 164-acre landfill is located along U.S. TH 169 on 476 acres of land located in the NW ~/a of Section 3, T33N, R26W, and the SW '/a of Section 34, T34N, R26W, Sherburne County, Minnesota (see Drawings titled "Site Plan -Entire Property" and °Site Plan -SDA"). The remainder of the property (312 acres) provides a buffer surrounding the property. ERL is permitted to accept Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), demolition and construction debris, yard waste for composting, industrial waste in accordance with a MPCA-approved Industrial Solid Waste Management Plan, and processing facility rejects from the Elk River Resource Recovery Facility. ERL has a long history of working collaboratively with the City of Elk River as the continued development of the landfill has been permitted in stages. ERL has maintained a solid waste facility license agreement and conditional use permits in accordance with the City of Elk River requirements since the 1970s. ERL and the City entered into a Host Community Agreement in 2003. Recital 1.10 of that agreement speaks to the cooperative efforts between ERL and the City and states that, ~~it is the parties intent to continue and to strengthen these cooperative efforts as the landfill continues to operate and expand." • The nature of landfill operations requires it to expand in order to continue its operations. The existing MSW solid waste landfill will reach its currently permitted capacity in less than five years. The proposed landfill expansion project, known as the Southern Development Area (SDA), will provide approximately 13,600,000 cubic yards of additional MSW design capacity to allow for the continued development of ERL's existing landfill facility. The ERL has harnessed energy from waste decomposition by extracting the methane gas and converting it to electricity to be distributed to local homes through Elk River Municipal Utilities since 1998. The proposed new landfill capacity would provide the opportunity to add a new gas to energy facility and provide additional green energy generation capacity. In addition, as part of the proposed project the ERL would like to work with the City and Sherburne County on a new Household Hazardous Waste Facility (HHWF) for area residents to drop-off household hazardous waste materials and recyclables. The SDA will require the property be rezoned to be included in the Solid Waste Facility Overlay District and a Sanitary Landfill Conditional Use Permit will need to be obtained. The ERL's existing Solid Waste Facility License will also need to be updated to include the SDA. City staff has indicated that a Comprehensive Plan amendment is needed for the SDA. 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT ERL proposes the continued development of its existing landfill facility by developing an additional 8.6 acres on the southern-most portion of the existing landfill property and 60.2 acres extending onto the 109-acre SDA parcel located immediately south of the existing landfill property (see Drawings titled "Site Development Plan -Entire Property" and "Site Development • Plan - SDA'. Elk River Landfill SDA ~' gonestroo ~WenCl< Section 1-1 Land Use Application ' ~ -~`~ RR IU11U1 t11MNIN