LEBANON — Almost two decades after starting to plan for a bigger landfill, city officials say they are on a tight deadline to get it done before the facility runs out of room in less than three years.
“We’ve got a very tight window, but we’re making it,” said Chris Kilmer, assistant director of public works, in an interview last week.
The city is actively seeking approval from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to expand the solid waste facility that already has a 25-acre lined landfill and an unlined landfill that has been closed since the late 1990s. The new section, “phase 3,” would be built on the same city-owned property.
The expansion project is expected to cost $15.3 million to construct and will extend the life of the landfill that accepts waste from Lebanon and 22 surrounding communities by another 19 years, Kilmer said.
If everything goes according to plan, Kilmer said construction will be done in mid-to-late 2028.
The full project application is available at the Department of Public Works office at 193 Dartmouth College Highway in Lebanon and online through DES’ OneStop platform with a facility id of 0000407. DES is accepting written comments on the proposal through 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Written comments on the phase 3 plan can be submitted by email to swpublic.comment@des.nh.gov or by mail to NHDES-SWMB, Attn: Jason Evancic, P.E., PO Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095.
DES has to provide a decision on the project by Nov. 30, said Jaime Colby, supervisor in the engineering and permitting section of DES’ solid waste management bureau in a July 29 public hearing.
Lebanon has been planning for the proposed 13.8 acre expansion since before 2008, engineer Derek Long for Sanborn Head and Associates said at the same public hearing.
It will be built directly south of the current landfill along the Connecticut River toward Plainfield.
The city is also requesting a waiver request to build the landfill within 500 feet of the Connecticut River. The planned expansion met a previously designated 250-foot setback that was changed under state law at the end of 2024, Long explained.
“Strict adherence to this rule will detrimentally reduce the disposal capacity, making the project economically not feasible for the city,” Long said.
The design includes “enhanced protective measures” for liquid waste, or leachate, that might released from the landfill, including new groundwater monitoring wells near the Connecticut River.
Though Kilmer said he is confident that the project remains on track, the city is putting together a “worst case scenario plan” in case construction is delayed, he said.
Sanborn Head is completing a study and cost estimate to temporarily convert the landfill into a transfer station that would involve Casella hauling Lebanon’s waste to somewhere in New York, Kilmer said.
The plan is not yet complete, but it is already expected to be very expensive, including an estimated $200 tipping fee per ton of waste plus trucking costs. The effort would likely cost $2.6 million in tipping fees alone, based on the average solid waste produced by Lebanon for the last three years.
“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kilmer said.
In that worst-case-scenario, the city would likely not be responsible for waste from the 22 surrounding communities that use the Lebanon landfill, Kilmer said.
While the city is working out the next two decades for the landfill, the longer term future is less certain.
The city has had a project in its capital improvement plan since at least 2021 to build another landfill expansion, called “phase 4.” That project, which would involve excavating the oldest portion of the city landfill that is unlined and capped, removing recyclables and building a new section in the same spot to the tune of $40 million.
Longtime City Councilor Tim McNamara has had the project on his mind to be reevaluated, including during his March campaign for reelection.
In May, McNamara requested the council discuss the project in order to “make sure we don’t spend a fortune on studies and conceptual designs for something we aren’t going to do,” he said at that City Council meeting.
The proposal would have expanded the landfill’s capacity by another 28 years, but following a presentation by the Department of Public Works the council opted not to go forward with the project.
At the meeting, Kilmer told the council that the city has been very fortunate to have little contamination from the original sealed and unlined landfill that closed in the late 1990s, according to state records. Opening and excavating the landfill would likely be a can of worms and the cost is prohibitive, he explained.
The council shifted the conversation to focus on “phase 3” construction and thinking about how to extend the remaining life of the landfill, including potentially limiting how much waste the city accepts from other towns. The group did not make any final decisions.
