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Compliance officer reports 51 audits, reduced leachate and 13 odor complaints in 2024
Summary
At its April 7 meeting, the Emerald Park standing committee heard a compliance officer summary of 2024 operations at the Muskego landfill: 51 audits (25 construction-related), Phase 8 opening, reduced leachate after a 2023 tank installation, 13 odor complaints, and localized erosion; wetlands reshaping was completed recently.
The Emerald Park standing committee on April 7 received a year-end compliance report that said the landfill had 51 audits in 2024, including 25 construction audits, and entered a new active area, described as Phase 8.
Compliance officer Joe Spear Jr. told the committee that construction activity produced an unusually high number of construction audits last year and that the landfill team began receiving waste in the new cell (Phase 8) in November 2024.
Spear said the operator placed a protective “fluff” layer over the leachate collection system during Phase 8 work to protect the liner and reported that a leachate tank installed in 2023 has “made leachate management a lot easier.” He said that, as the active footprint shrinks on the top lifts, leachate generation has declined.
Why it matters: reduced leachate and smaller active areas can lower long-term monitoring needs and short-term risks from runoff; odor complaints affect nearby residents and can trigger follow-up inspections.
The report logged 13 odor complaints for 2024 and 13 audit-recorded odor observations. Spear said six of the complaints were identified as garbage odors attributable to the landfill operator’s cover problems and six were attributed to landfill gas; one complaint was described as “garbage.” He told the committee that odor observations during audits were primarily garbage odors in the parking lot, access road or on US 45.
Spear also identified localized erosion on the north slope of Phase 4 related to vehicle traffic used for gas sampling. He said that the footprint at the top of the landfill has become smaller with each lift and that capping of that area is planned for the summer.
Committee members asked about wetlands work near the site. Spear said reshaping of the floodplain and wetlands work was completed about two weeks earlier and that the reshaped wetlands are outside the landfill’s waste mass and will not be a future cell; he characterized that work as landscaping from the operations perspective.
The committee scheduled a site tour for June 23, 2025, to follow up on ongoing operations and the planned capping work.
Ending: The committee did not take formal action on the compliance report; members discussed the report’s findings and scheduled the June site tour for on-site review of the upcoming capping and erosion controls.
