As the Johnson County Landfill continues to make improvements, the Shawnee City Council granted an extension to its special use permit.
On Monday, Shawnee City Council voted 7-0 to approve a one-year special use permit extension for the Johnson County Landfill and its operator, Waste Management. Councilmember Mike Kemmling was absent.
Typically, the city council issues four-year extensions for special use permits. Because the landfill is still addressing issues such as odor, blasting and continued methane flaring, the permit was extended to only one year.
“I’m confident that within that year period that the flaring will not be an issue, but that is why this special use permit is being recommended just for the one-year period,” said Doug Allmon, Shawnee’s community planning director.
Methane flaring is one of the main issues
Throughout the year, methane flaring at the new Archaea renewable energy plant, which is located on the landfill’s property, has been a problem for both residents and the Shawnee Fire Department.
While the plant’s goal is to capture gases like methane from the landfill and convert it into renewable energy, it has resorted to flaring, or burning off, the built-up gases as the facility continues to expand.
“Obviously, that’s a good renewable energy source, and it’s good to capture it rather than flare it,” Allmon said. “But through the implementation of that construction activity, they’ve had some issues fine tuning their equipment, and so they have been flaring frequently, to the extent some of the flares are very tall and at night.”
Blasting is still a concern
In order to curb litter from blowing away from the site and being less visible to the public, the landfill moved its operations to the northwest side of the site in a newly constructed cell, or landfill space, with a deeper hole.
In order to achieve that, it had to use blasting, or explosives, to loosen rock to make room for waste to be stored underground.
As blasting occurred throughout the day, it generated its own set of complaints from residents.
“When it comes to the blasting, I think we frequently get complaints as well, and I know the city does,” Councilmember Kurt Knappen said.
To help address that, new blasting measures were added to the special use permit, that requires the applicant to notify the city manager’s office and fire marshal via email 24 hours prior to any blasting, blasting only to take place between noon and 4:30 p.m. and residents being provided notification of blasting 30 minutes in advance.
“There’s actually been blasting that followed these new regulations out in the south part of the city, and we’ve seen much less issues with those,” Allmon said.
Odor has been kept to a minimum
While odor was previously a big issue, Allmon said Waste Management has been proactive since 2020 about tamping that down through efforts like the landfill odor hotline.
It’s been a successful effort, said Councilmember Tony Gillette, who represents Ward 1, where the landfill is located.
“They’ve been very, very responsive to me and to my residents in my ward, when issues come up regarding odor,” he said. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla that they’ve done an excellent job of keeping in the cage on a far (more) regular basis than we’ve ever seen.”
Other issues are seeing improvements
The city noted Waste Management’s other improvements to issues like littering, with the new landfill site and temporary mobile fencing that allows for less litter from being blown off the site by winds.
Waste Management has also seen improvements to litter after expanding its cleanup efforts along I-435, from Shawnee Mission Parkway to 87th Street, and under the Midland Drive bridge.
“Litter complaints and issues have been significantly reduced as a result of these efforts and are at an acceptable level,” according to city documents.
The city was positive issues will be resolved
Prior to its vote, several city councilmembers noted Waste Management’s efforts to collaborate with the city and see issues were resolved.
“There’s self interest of wanting to make money out of this project, and keeping that flaring to the minimum will keep residents concerns down,” Gillette said. “So I think we’re in the right direction, and agree with you, the one year (SUP) is perfect.”
If all the noted changes are made leading up to the permit’s expiration in 2025, Allmon said the permit will likely get consideration by city council for a typical four-year extension.
Go deeper: Methane flares from Johnson County landfill remain a problem in Shawnee. What can city do?
