2018-155 Landfill Expansion Permitting ProcessDate: October 26, 2018 Report No. 2018-155
INFORMAL STAFF REPORT
TO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT:
The City Council has requested an update on the landfill expansion permitting process. The
information below provides a brief history of the City of Denton Landfill, an overview of the
landfill permitting process and public notifications within that process, and where the City of
Denton currently stands within the amendment process.
DISCUSSION:
The City of Denton Landfill is a Type 1 Municipal Solid Waste Facility, currently holding Permit
#1590-A through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Based on current
waste tonnage and future growth projects, staff estimates that the 207 acres allotted for disposal in
Permit #1590-A will be depleted by 2028.
To address the community’s future waste disposal needs, the City filed for an amendment to the
current permit in January 2017. This expansion will result in an increase of 173.64 acres within
the permit boundary and 107.64 acres of waste footprint for total areas of 402.54 and 261.41 acres,
respectively when added to the current footprint. Taking into consideration the historical and
estimated future waste acceptance rates, including local and regional population growth, the
landfill will have a remaining life of approximately 71.7 years (last year of operation is
approximately the year 2088) if the permit is amended as requested.
The permit amendment application proposes a vertical and lateral expansion of the waste limits,
and a lateral expansion of the permit boundary. The majority of the expansion will occur to the
north of the existing landfill, the planned expansion will all take place on property that is currently
owned by the City. The boundaries were selected based on property lines, flood plain
considerations, an Atmos gas line to the north of the site, and other geographic restrictions. Based
on landfill records and an aerial survey, the remaining waste capacity after Permit Amendment
approval is approximately 40,288,920 cubic yards. The expansion is filed under Permit #1590-B.
Table 1 shows the current costs related to the permitting process. To-date, the City of Denton has
expended over $2.1 million to permit this expansion for environmental services, engineering, legal,
permitting, and other services.
Date: October 26, 2018 Report No. 2018-155
Company Services Fee
Chian, Patel & Yerby
Engineering, Ground
Water, Environmental,
and Air Permitting $1,319,102.40
Parkhill, Smith & Cooper Engineering $328,510.00
Gosselink, Rochelle & Townsend Legal $377,277.95
Coleman & Associates Surveying $32,009.25
Applied Ecological Services Ecological Report $45,263.54
Weaver Consulting Group Air Permitting $5,000.00
Lee Engineering Traffic Study $22,890.00
Kleinfelder Geotechnical $1,800.00
Total $2,131,853.14
Table 1. Breakdown of permitting costs
The Permit is currently under technical review by the TCEQ. During this portion of the process,
TCEQ issues requests for clarification on the application and asks for revisions to the permit
submission. City staff then formulates responses to the agency’s requests as the two parties fine-
tune the specifics of the application. The most recent responses from the City were sent to TCEQ
in August.
Although circumstance may apply, the TCEQ follows the following basic process for public notice
of a Type 1 MSW landfill permit application:
1) TCEQ will issue a Notice of Receipt of Application and Intent to Obtain Permit (NORI). When
the administrative review of the application is complete, this notice is mailed to the City for
publishing and to required mailing list of government officials and certain landowners. The NORI
will give details of where you can look at a hard copy of the permit application, and also contains
links to the MSW permit applications portion of the TCEQ website. This notice was posted in the
Denton Record-Chronicle on April 3, 2017.
2) Once the NORI is mailed, the public may start submitting comments. Requests for a public
meeting or a contested case hearing can also be made, as well as requests to be added to the mailing
list for future notices. Public commenting is still available on the TCEQ website under permit
number 1590B, and a hard copy is available to view through the City Secretary’s office.
3) After the permit is deemed technically complete and the executive director has made a
preliminary decision, TCEQ will issue notices requesting comments from members of the public.
This is sent in the form of a Notice of Application and Preliminary Decision (NAPD). This notice
is mailed to a list of government officials and certain landowners, anyone who submitted
comments, requested a public meeting or contested case hearing, or requested to be on the mailing
list for future notices. The public comment period typically ends 30 days from the publication date
of the NAPD. The publication date is significant because TCEQ only considers timely filed
comments.
Date: October 26, 2018 Report No. 2018-155
The TCEQ gathers all comments received at the end of the public comment period and responds
as they are able. Once all of the comments have been responded to, the TCEQ will create a
document called the “response to comments” and will send that document to everyone who
submitted a comment or requested to be added to the mailing list.
Additionally, someone may request a public meeting for the landfill expansion. If this meeting is
held, the public may ask TCEQ staff and the City of Denton staff questions regarding the permit,
and give comments. Anyone may ask for a public meeting any time between the date the NORI is
mailed and the end of the comment period.
As stated above, the City of Denton is currently in the technical review portion of the permitting
process. Staff expects the permit to be approved in 2019.
BACKGROUND:
Originally, the City of Denton Landfill was permitted (#1590) in 1984 and began accepting waste
on March 13, 1985. The original pre-subtitle D landfill design included approximately 2.4 million
cubic yards of air space, and was estimated to have a life of 28 years.
In 1996, the City of Denton amended the landfill’s waste permit to include additional space for
disposal of waste. The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission approved MSW Permit
#1590-A in 1997, which added 207 acres onto the permit limit, and expanded the permitted landfill
to approximately 243 acres The Landfill has continues operations under this permit since that time.
Two significant modifications to the Permit since 1997 allowed for 1) Enhanced Leachate
Recirculation techniques in 2009, and 2) construction and operation of a grease and grit trap waste
processing facility in October of 2013.
Throughout the years, as the city continued to grow, Solid Waste & Recycling has seen increases
in tonnage of waste that is handled and buried in the landfill. Table 2 shows the tonnage of waste
accepted to be processed in the landfill over the past 10 years as broken down by the source.
• “Commercial Collections” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) collected by the Solid
Waste commercial division within city limits.
• “Residential Collections” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) collected by the Solid
Waste residential division within city limits.
• “Landfill – City Department” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) brought to the landfill
by internal City of Denton departments.
• “Landfill – Denton Resident/Business” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) brought to
the landfill by residents or businesses located within city limits.
• “Landfill – Non-Denton Resident/Business” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) brought
to the landfill by entities that are not located within Denton.
• “Landfill – Wholesale” refers to the amount of waste (in tons) that is collected and brought
to landfill by outside waste haulers.
Date: October 26, 2018 Report No. 2018-155
Waste Tonnage by Source FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013
Commercial Collections 70,845 62,796 67,979 63,294 67,015
Residential Collections 22,015 22,394 22,235 22,428 22,171
Landfill – City Department 2,945 3,206 2,443 1,346 1,268
Landfill – Denton
Resident/Business 11,056 10,335 12,154 12,919 14,498
Landfill – Non-Denton
Resident/Business 4,225 4,037 4,405 4,963 5,741
Landfill – Wholesale 50,563 40,364 38,620 58,805 63,455
Total Waste Tonnage 161,648 143,132 147,837 163,755 174,148
Waste Tonnage by Source FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018
Commercial Collections 70,936 76,553 81,991 83,928 85,349
Residential Collections 22,709 24,081 25,253 26,382 26,502
Landfill – City Department 4,374 7,640 7,895 1,609 5,376
Landfill – Denton
Resident/Business 21,585 23,468 29,295 50,683 49,304
Landfill – Non-Denton
Resident/Business 6,012 5,432 10,073 5,349 9,897
Landfill – Wholesale 70,079 100,152 99,416 101,698 103,574
Total Waste Tonnage 195,695 237,325 253,923 269,648 279,984
Table 2. Waste tonnage by source.
The department also places an emphasis on recycling and waste diversion from the landfill through
various programs, education, and public outreach. Table 3 shows the tons of materials that have
been recycled over the past 10 years as a result of those efforts. Some programs have been created
within the 10 year period, which is why that data is left blank.
Recycling/Diversion by
Source FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013
Residential Collections 7,211 7,001 7,207 7,225 7,482
Commercial Collections 1,577 2,047 2,518 2,295 2,846
Yard Waste (for Dyno Dirt) 16,003 18,042 16,526 15,906 19,778
Diverted Sludge (for Dyno
Dirt) 2,833 3,209 3,411 3,788 3,817
Commercial Organics - - - - -
Home Chemical Collection - - - - -
Drug Disposal Kiosk - - - - -
Building Materials Recovery - - - 777 1,776
Rubble (Asphalt, Concrete,
Brick)* 1,430 5,328 5,926 2,395 37,719
Total Recycled/Diverted
Tonnage 29,054 35,627 35,588 32,416 73,418
*Staff estimates that only 10% of these volumes were diverted. The remainder of the material remains onsite and may require
disposal.
Date: October 26, 2018 Report No. 2018-155
Recycling/Diversion by
Source FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018
Residential Collections 7,704 7,625 8,153 7,986 5,979
Commercial Collections 3,110 3,843 3,789 3,646 2,930
Yard Waste (for Dyno Dirt) 18,255 24,620 24,884 27,044 23,469
Diverted Sludge (for Dyno
Dirt) 3,302 4,096 3,713 4,343 4,312
Commercial Organics 380 439 487 427 371
Home Chemical Collection 7 46 46 63 61
Drug Disposal Kiosk - 2 2 1 2
Building Materials Recovery 7,963 8,709 1,869 1,155 789
Rubble (Asphalt, Concrete,
Brick)* 46,934 38,542 70,800 77,979 67,580
Total Recycled/Diverted
Tonnage 87,655 87,922 113,743 122,644 105,493
*Staff estimates that only 10% of these volumes were diverted. The remainder of the material remains onsite and may require
disposal.
Table 3. Recycling and Diversion tonnage by source.
In regard to future volume projections, staff anticipates residential and commercial growth to
remain steady at approximately 2% per year. In terms of landfill and recycling tonnage, the
recycling market will play a key role in Solid Waste’s volumes. In January 2018, China banned
the import of recyclable materials from foreign countries. Approximately 31% of domestic
recyclable materials were being exported to China before the ban, and China’s decision has
resulted in significant changes in the recycling commodities market.
While Denton’s relationship with Pratt Industries, owner of Denton’s onsite material recovery
facility, has insulated the City from significant financial losses, the excess supply of recyclables
in the commodities market means contaminated materials may be landfilled at a higher rate until
the recycling market recovers. As a result, it is a priority for the City to decrease recycling
contamination for both residential and commercial waste streams.
STAFF CONTACT:
Ethan Cox
Director of Solid Waste
940-349-7421
Ethan.Cox@cityofdenton.com