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While no major expansion is being planned, McMinn County officials have been discussing the future of the county landfill and ways to make it last longer.

During Monday night’s Solid Waste Committee of the McMinn County Commission, Mayor John Gentry talked with the members about plans that have been created to attempt to achieve that longevity.

“If we’re going to leave anything behind, we’re hopefully not going to leave an unsightly landfill,” Gentry said, noting that he hopes to “make this site last as long as possible.”

The county currently owns land stretching across Dry Branch and down to County Road 802 for landfill use. However, Gentry said he hopes to keep dumping constricted to the area closer to where activity currently is, if possible.

“We’re going over our unclosed C&D instead of going over Dry Branch and making a long haul,” Gentry explained. “It means going a little higher, but we found we can do that.”

C&D stands for materials such as those used in construction and demolition debris. It is listed as Class 3/4 waste. Household solid waste is considered Class 1 waste.

The C&D landfill is currently at the end of the road when someone turns left after passing the scale house. Dumping there is mostly confined to the area immediately around the road.

The Class 1 landfill is immediately past the scale house.

Ron Key of CTI Engineers was on hand for the meeting, laying out the specifics of the plans discussed to the committee members.

“There is additional room for the Class 1 landfill,” Key said. “We’re going to try to recover some space the state turned down a few years ago.”

He also echoed Gentry’s emphasis to not stretch beyond Dry Branch if it was avoidable.

“The consensus is that you really don’t want to cross the creek unless you have to,” he said.

Key also noted that while they have a few alterations in mind, they’re trying to look first at the C&D portion of the landfill. The current plan is to attempt to stretch the dumping area directly south of where it currently is, which would open up the area further to the right from the end of the road.

“The highest priority is to work on the C&D landfill,” Key said.

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