People living near a now-closed Mercer County landfill had a chance to voice their opinion on plans to re-open the facility for 24-hours a day, six days a week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection hosted a public hearing Wednesday evening at Grove City High School about a permit application to resume operations at the Tri-County Landfill in Liberty and Pine Township.

"The stench, and the dust from it and all the trucks going up and down that road," are all major concerns for Ashley Kamovitch who lives near the area with her young kids.

Currently, it serves as a trash transfer site.

If the application is approved, new waste disposal areas would open within the existing 99-acre permit boundary, of which approximately 44.5 acres were used as disposal areas.

Grove City Airport pilot, Stephen Shields, said the landfill is too close to the airport and could become very dangerous for the pilots.

It's less than a a mile and a half from the site.

"Why would somebody want to bring their multi-million dollar jet to GrovC city if there is a possibility that they could damage it or ingest a bird or something along those lines," said Shields.


Plans call for excavating approximately 1,551,000 cubic yards of waste currently in the old, unlined disposal areas. The old trash would be relocated to new lined disposal cells.

Some people are concerned about the heath risks. Doctor Robert Multari was one of about 30 people to speak at the hearing. He said living in the area of a landfill could cause cancer.

"It is very scary and I am lobbying against it."

Tri-County Industries was not at the meeting.