Wicomico county landfill concerns grow

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – At the Newland Park Landfill, the Wicomico County Council has proposed new solid waste legislation.

Jeff Merritt, vice president of the Wicomico County Council, said, “There’s been a proposal floated to close the landfill on Saturdays to commercial haulers and, in October, to close it on Mondays as well. I believe the goal is to limit the input to the landfill. That’s going to cause consequences to the business community and the residential community.”

The County Council said it has concerns about the proposed “tonnage inflow limitation strategy.”

Merritt also said, “If the landfill is closed and the haulers are not able to dump their trash, there’s a possibility that the trash will build up and be held over a day or two or three, depending on how the calendar falls. And that’s not good.”

Landfill officials said their concern centers around waste coming from outside Wicomico County’s jurisdiction.

Adam Corry, Executive Director of Environmental Services and acting Landfill Superintendent, said, “A lot of other counties in the state of Maryland have specific code that goes a step further to explicitly prohibit material from outside of the county. And I think that’s something that we need here to protect ourselves and protect this resource for who it belongs to.”

Last year, the landfill took in 165,000 tons of material. Landfill officials said they’re running out of space and that decisions need to be made now.

“I want to make sure the community understands that and we’re really trying to make sure that we have it here for the future. The only way to do that is to protect ourselves now and implement some better planning in the future. And I think that’s what we’re here to do,” Corry said.

County Executive Julie Giordano will hold a press conference regarding legislation connected to the operations at the Wicomico County Landfill.