Report: Landfill study did not consider worst-case scenario

Saturday, September 17th 2005, 6:07 am

By: News On 6

ANTHONY, Kan. (AP) _ A study that helped a company get a permit to build a landfill in northeast Harper County, Kansas, apparently didn't consider how serious groundwater pollution could get.

The study for the permit application was prepared for Waste Connections of Kansas Incorporated by the Colorado consulting firm Golder Associates Incorporated.

The Plumb Creek Landfill is expected to open in 2006. Waste Connections says it will be able to handle Wichita's trash, now being trucked to Meno, Oklahoma, for at least 50 years.

But the latest report, issued this week by Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City, Missouri, said Golder Associates' study didn't fully consider how pollutants could get out of the landfill and into the groundwater.

Commissioners met but took no action after receiving the report, which recommended working toward a mutual understanding of the hydrogeologic model of the landfill site.