Local news

Landfill’s waste via rail system generates revenue, lessens cost for county residents

McELHATTAN -- The Wayne Township Landfill is the only active landfill in Pennsylvania that takes waste via rail and disposes of it on-site. The process in-turn is generating over a million dollars a year for the landfill in total revenue, said general manager Jay Alexander.

The rail line was built in 2013 as a cheaper alternative to transportation, saving the landfill money on raising fuel prices with trucking. After about five years, WTL and Norfolk Southern became partners. The Norfolk Southern main line that goes from Buffalo to Philadelphia is just over the bank of the landfill's campus -- the one that goes through Lock Haven also, Alexander said.

"We sat right here on the main line back in the mid-2000s when fuel was $4 or $5 a gallon, it really made us think about where we would be transportation wise as we expand the landfill. Is trucking going to be too expensive? How do we utilize being this close to the rail? We included the rail yard in our permitting process as part of our expansion," Alexander said.

The landfill owns a track with five spurs on it, allowing the placement of 100 rail cars. Since it is on Norfolk Southern's line, they are only able to work with that specific transit company, he said.

There are three landfills in the state that are permitted to take waste via rail but WTL is the only active landfill that is actually taking waste via the rail and disposing of it on-site, Alexander continued.

Each one of the boxes loaded onto the rail has about 25 tons of materials in them. One rail car has upwards of about 150 tons on it. Alexander said that the landfill sends about 130-140 tons a day depending on what is going on out in the working face --the location where the garbage gets dumped.

The cars come in groups of six which travel together. Each car has six loads on it -- six boxes. Alexander said that the landfill will dump six plus or minus loads five days a week.

WTL was supplied with a machine through a long-term contract that helps unload and lift boxes off of the rail cars. The machine lifts one box off at a time and sets it on one of the landfill's trucks. Alexander said the trucks take the boxes, weighs it on the scales and then heads out to the working face, dumps it and returns to the railyard. The empty box then gets put back onto the train and the process repeats, he added.

"It's heavy material, so it allows us to spread, initially, the same operating cost over a larger amount of tonage. We are doing 1,000 tons a day across the scales from the road and trucks. It takes the same amount of guys and gals as it does to operate the landfill as it does to 1,150 tons. We are doing the extra 150 tons a day to get us up to that 1,150 range with the same operating cost. Then that spreads the operating cost over a higher number which makes for a lower operating cost number," explained Alexander.

The end result of bringing in all of the outside tonage into the facility, is allowing the landfill to have a cheap rate for the Clinton County region.

Alexander said that a lot of people are concerned when they see rail traffic such as trucks from outside the area coming into the landfill. At the end of the day, what they are doing is subsidizing the cost of the operation, easing Clinton County businesses and residents and allowing them to reap the benefits by having a cheap tipping fee, he added.

Alexander said that it took about five years for any business to start up with the railyard, however in recent years, the waste via rail push has been working well for the landfill. They are pretty happy with it, he added.