Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Waste Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Republic Services reports royalties, 20.7-year baseline life and gas-collection gains at White Oak Landfill
Summary
Republic Services told Haywood County commissioners the White Oak Landfill handled about 160,115 tons in FY 23–24, paid roughly $135,234 in royalties that year and has about 20.7 years of remaining life by Republic’s conservative calculations; a new gas-collection system could enable gas-to-energy opportunities.
Steve Slater, Republic Services' general manager for Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, told the Haywood County Board of Commissioners that White Oak Landfill's combined annual tonnage for the 2023–24 fiscal year was 160,115 tons and that royalties to the county totaled $135,233.93 for the year and $1,153,997.86 since the contract began.
"For the landfill, total in county volume, for the 2324 fiscal year was 86,850 tons," Slater said during the Sept. 16 presentation, later giving out-of-county and recovered-material tallies and the quarterly royalty breakdown. The presentation included line-item figures for the landfill's permitted airspace and remaining permitted airspace, and Republic staff described a remaining-life estimate of about 20.7 years using a density assumption of 1,324 pounds per cubic yard.
Stoddard Pickrell, Republic's environmental manager, described a major infrastructure investment this year — installation of a gas collection and control system (GCCS) with 21 vertical extraction points and multiple tie-ins — and said early operational results show decreased onsite odors and lower liquid production. Pickrell and Slater said the company expects to have more complete gas-quality and flow data by mid‑spring to evaluate a potential gas‑to‑energy project for the county's benefit.
Republic also told the board it will purchase wetland/stream mitigation credits to comply with state in‑lieu requirements for future cell work; the presenters put the mitigation-cost figure at roughly $2,350,000 and identified the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the state and federal programs managing mitigation review and placement.
Commissioners asked technical questions about how Republic calculates remaining life versus earlier SanTek numbers; Slater noted Republic reports a conservative, year‑over‑year snapshot rather than projecting long‑term settlement. Slater and Pickrell also said captured landfill gas has commercial value and that Republic has national partners for gas projects and potential revenue sharing.
The board did not vote on any contract changes at the meeting; commissioners asked to receive the gas‑system data and return to the full board for further discussion in the spring when Republic has the next batch of operational figures.
