The council approved a change order and additional funds to a consulting engineer to expand testing and design work at the township's former landfill after the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) identified dumping beyond the previously known limits.

The resolution authorized Change Order No. 1 and additional funds to Remington & Vernick Engineers (listed in the meeting backup) for the landfill-closure evaluation, closure design and permitting work; the change order total shown in the agenda discussion was $449,940. Township staff told council members that DEP site investigations indicated dumping in what the DEP calls an "environmental benefit area" that may be substantially larger than the original landfill footprint.

"DEP notified the township that dumping occurred in what is considered the environmental benefit area, which is roughly 12 times the size of the original landfill," one engineering official said at the meeting, and added that the additional testing and permitting would extend the schedule and require more extensive field work. Staff described planned tasks: test pits, monitoring-well installation and sampling, leachate sampling, surface-water and sediment testing, landfill-gas monitoring, pump tests and a disruption-permit program to allow deeper subsurface sampling.

Council members asked where the closure funds come from and whether the township's closure account would be depleted; the business administrator reported that the closure account is held in a state-funded account and that a substantial portion of the new change order is expected to be reimbursable. "A substantial amount of it will actually be refunded through a different source," Sonya, an administration official, told the council, and staff said $356,000 of the change order will be reimbursable through the New Jersey Department of Planning Waste Planning and Licensing Escrow (as described in the meeting backup).

Engineers and council members said the expanded sampling is necessary to identify the true limits of the dumped material, to determine the extent of abatement and to prepare a defensible closure design that meets DEP requirements. Because the actual limits are unknown, staff said it is too early to estimate final remediation, construction or closure costs; that estimate will depend on what the additional pits and tests reveal.

What was authorized: the council approved the change order to advance subsurface testing and permitting work that engineers say are prerequisites for a final closure design; staff said the work will require several years of sampling, coordination with DEP and additional design steps.

Why it matters: the discovery of dumping outside the originally mapped landfill area increases environmental-review costs and extends the schedule for closure, monitoring and potential remediation actions. Staff said the change-order work will produce the information necessary to define construction-level scope and cost estimates and to protect public health and the environment.

Next steps: Remington & Vernick will perform the listed tasks and coordinate permit filings with DEP; staff said they will return to the council with ongoing updates and with final design and construction estimates once the full extent of the environmental-benefit area is defined.