Rosemount landfill wants to add more than 100 acres

SKB Environmental plans to enlarge its Rosemount landfill by more than 100 acres — a move that will let the landfill accept about 40% more waste in the coming decades — despite the objection of some neighbors.

SKB last month received most of the necessary city approvals to add 119 acres of space directly east of the landfill's current boundary on Rosemount's east side, west of Hwy. 55. The 167-acre landfill accepts industrial waste, demolition and construction debris and combustor ash from the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center in Minneapolis.

A change to the city's comprehensive plan still needs Metropolitan Council approval, and one other approval is required by the city. The project also needs a permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

"We are really excited about this project," said Ryan O'Gara, SKB's divisional government affairs manager at a Planning Commission meeting in May. "Without this, our facility would be closed in, I think we're saying, seven years or so."

SKB employees' futures are "wrapped up" in the expansion, O'Gara said.

"We also believe this project benefits the vast overwhelming majority of people in Rosemount through the host community fees that we pay and some of the things that allows the city to do," O'Gara said.

Rosemount receives $1.8 million to $2.1 million annually in host fees from SKB, said Logan Martin, Rosemount city administrator, adding that the city uses much of the money for parks and recreation projects .

When reached by e-mail, O'Gara would not comment further on plans.

The landfill's 1,060-foot elevation will not change, city officials said, and the landfill will not receive more trash annually. The change would prolong the lifetime of the landfill.

Martin said the city is excited about the road improvements stemming from the expansion, including constructing a new north-south road between Ehlers Path and Hwy. 55 and moving the landfill's entrance onto that new road instead of on Hwy. 55.

The city's philosophy about hosting a landfill is that the waste "has to go somewhere," Martin said. SKB's landfill is "highly functioning," and it is the only triple-lined landfill in the area, SKB officials have said previously.

"They know what they're doing, and they're good at what they're doing," Martin said.

The company hasn't submitted a formal permit application to the MPCA yet but handed in a work plan for the first two phases of investigation. Those phases involve looking at the geology, water and soil conditions beneath the expansion area by boring into the ground, said Laura Pugh, a hydrogeologist for the MPCA.

This isn't the landfill's first attempt at increasing capacity. Last summer, SKB withdrew its application to expand because of concerns from residents in the area. The Planning Commission recommended denial.

The company has since signed agreements to purchase three properties near the site and received letters of support for the expansion from those residents, said Anthony Nemcek, Rosemount's senior city planner.

At the Planning Commission meeting, O'Gara said the company had reached out to neighbors and found they had varying issues.

Janet Rohlf, who lives about a mile from the landfill, said area landowners have general concerns about the expansion, including more truck traffic, possible water pollution and loss of wildlife habitat.

"There's a concern that those kind of [industrial] owners are too close to … residential areas," she said.

At the Planning Commission meeting, Michael Mohr said his driveway is just across the street from the landfill's proposed new entrance. When he purchased the property four years ago, that land was zoned for agriculture. He planned on starting a small tree farm and "spending the rest of my life in a town I grew up in," he said.

He's met with O'Gara, he said, but hasn't seen a resolution to issues he's raised, including traffic, blowing trash and the clamor of slamming tailgates.

"I understand that Rosemount is about progress, and with progress comes development," Mohr said. "I just hope that the city holds them to working with neighbors."