By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
For the ordinary citizen or business who might be taking their trash out for pickup, the idea that there could be no place for it is a scary, sobering thought. Ft Wright Mayor Dave Hatter once marveled during a council meeting that he lives in a place where garbage is picked up from his curb and magically taken somewhere. It is a service that has increasingly been taken for granted.
But the only landfill in Northern Kentucky is in southern Boone County, a 461- acre tract of land owned by Bavarian, and they have raised their hand to bring attention to the fact that they need to have more of their land officially permitted to collect solid waste.
“We are not out of room, we have 461 acres, and we are still working on the same 160 acres that my grandfather was working on,” said Nicholas Brueggemann, site manager for Bavarian. “The counties want to make sure there will always be enough room for landfill, so we wanted to help them out, and guarantee a certain amount of self-sustainability. But to expand horizontally or vertically, we have to have permission from the state.”
The fact is that currently Bavarian is qualified to collect 11.1 million tons of trash on their property. Currently they have collected 9.25 million tons of garbage.
Thinking about the future, Bavarian has requested permission for room for 37.7 million more tons of trash, which they estimate will take them through the next 20 years.
For perspective, they are requesting the equivalent of 1600 football fields, end to end, worth of space, or land to store 23.9 million king-sized mattresses.
The next step is for the board of Northern Kentucky Solid Waste Management Area, NKSWMA, to hold a public hearing to see what people have to say about the issue. That public hearing will be February 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Boone County Administration building at the first floor courtroom. People from Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties are encouraged to attend.
“The NKSWMA was formed in 1995, as a direct result of a state law mandating that all counties form a solid waste management area, and develop a plan that will manage municipal solid waste generated by residents, businesses and visitors,” said Robert Franxman, Boone County Assistant County Administrator and County Engineer. “In Northern Kentucky, Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties joined together to form NKSWMA to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.”
This group’s main goal is to develop a Solid Waste Management Plan, which is updated every five years. The last update was done in 2023 and was intended to go until 2027, unless there was a special request, which is what this request from Bavarian is.
“Our goal is to hear from residents and business owners, who are for or against this proposal, and answer any questions they have,” said Elaine Zeinner, Communications Senior Manager for Boone County. “Then the board can make the best recommendation for the whole area.”
The NKSWMA Board consists of the Judge Executives from all three counties; Gary Moore, Kris Knochelmann, and Steve Pendery, or their designated people, along with each county’s Solid Waste Coordinator, Ken Points for Boone County, Melissa Grandstaff for Kenton County, and Megan Abrams from Campbell County.
Brueggemann estimated that the last time they asked for horizontal expansion was back in 1995, but he acknowledged that since then, housing and the demand for housing has been accelerating. Their landfill receives about 2,000 tons of garbage a day, and that number is not likely to go down.
Statistics show that housing demands are increasing. The Northern Kentucky Area Development District recently put out a housing report that showed that the demand for housing, especially apartments and condos, is outpacing the actual physical housing, so with the population increasing, the garbage is increasing.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in the year 2018 they estimated that every American created 4.9 pounds of garbage, adding up to 1,800 pounds of trash in a year, more than any other country produces.
Bavarian is doing a good job of keeping up with the garbage, and the NKSWMA would like for them to continue to do a good job far into the future. Thus the request for more space.
Again, the public hearing is Monday, February 3, at 5:30 pm at the Boone County Administration Building, 2950 Washington Street, Burlington. Those who cannot make the hearingcan submit feedback by email at countyengineer@boonecountyky.org, or send a letter to Boone County Engineer, PO Box 900, Burlington, Kentucky 41005. However the emails and the letters have to be received by Friday, January 31, to be able to be part of the public record.
See the Boone county website for details.