Locals once called it Trash Mountain.
But Tri-County industries never got the approval needed to expand their landfill located just east of the Grove City Outlets.

The last time the landfill was in the news was 2013 when the Department of Environmental Protection denied Tri-County a permit application for expansion.

But now Tri-County has filed plans for something different on their property, a 41,000 square foot building where they treat landfill leachate.
Leachate is the water that flows through landfills and has to be treated because it is full of contaminants.

Dan Gracenin is from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission. His office must review the building designs while Pine and Liberty Townships must address the zoning issues.

"What we are waiting for is we are under a 90 day clock to do an approval or denial on the land development. One of the things we need from the local communities is evidence that they've made application for their zoning permits. At this time we have not received those so we are in limbo at this time," said Gracenin.

Tri-County's original plans called for a 160 foot tall landfill to be built on their property but zoning laws prohibited that and limited the landfill to be just 40 feet high. now it appears tri-county will go for that 40 foot height.

Gracenin says their engineering designs show the footprint of a mound with heights of 40 feet. It's tall but not close to being a mountain.  More meetings will be scheduled on the permit applications and there is sure to be community involvement in those.

The county Planning Commission is expected to give their final decision on September 26th, but they are just one piece of the puzzle needed to make the landfill a reality.