Baltimore County announces ‘vertical expansion’ to Eastern Sanitary Landfill

Lia Russell, Baltimore Sun
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Baltimore County announced Monday a new effort that officials say will extend the life span of the county’s sole publicly owned landfill by as much as 40 years after previous estimates said it would run out of capacity by 2027.

The Baltimore County Department of Public Works applied in November with the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to expand the Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh, according to Nick Rodricks, the county’s solid waste management bureau chief.

On Monday, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Democrat, said the county was proposing a “vertical expansion” to the landfill that he said would change its current permitted height of 192 feet to 230 feet while adding 3 million tons of additional capacity and prolonging its life span lto as late as 2060.

Heightening the landfill is one of several recommendations proposed in a 2021 report from a work group tasked with studying the county’s trash policies.

“We have an ongoing commitment to environmental health in Baltimore County, and identifying a solution to appropriately dispose of waste without expanding the footprint of the landfill is ideal,” Olszewski said in a statement. “Reducing the amount of waste going into our landfills is a priority, and we encourage all residents to become strong stewards of our shared environment by taking advantage of our recycling services and to help keep our communities clean and green.”

The state environmental department predicted in 2020 that the 375-acre landfill, which accepts only residential trash, would reach capacity by 2027.

But “an updated review of recent tonnage, and as a result of ongoing waste diversion efforts,” Baltimore County now says the landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2040. Building the landfill up, instead of expanding its perimeter, would allow it to accept waste until 2060.

In a statement, Public Works Director D’Andrea Walker said the landfill’s expansion was not only a “significant infrastructure initiative,” but also a “long-term commitment” to the community.

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“This expansion ensures that we will continue to focus on sustainable waste management, effectively addressing the needs of our community for the next several decades,” she said.

The landfill accepted around 475,000 tons of trash in 2022, and 275,000 tons in 2023, according to county spokesperson Erica Palmisano.

Part of those waste diversion efforts includes offloading more trash to Harford County, according to Rodricks, made possible by the purchase of a new incinerator and an additional $12 million in the Public Works budget that allowed the county to transfer more waste.