A stinky situation for residents living near a local landfill could be getting worse.

According to the Jefferson County Health Department, the owners of the Apex Landfill filed a request with the Ohio EPA last Friday to increase the height at the landfill.

Bruce Misselwitz, Jefferson County Health Department Director, said the landfill owners wrote letters to residents living near the landfill about their request. Misselwitz said it is rumored the owners want to increase the daily tonnage from a little over 5,000 tons to 10,000 tons.

“I don’t know if they’re going to have to open these cells up to add it or just add on top of it. We had a lot of issues of smells when they built those two cells so we’re going to look at this very carefully when we see the application,” said Misselwitz.

Misselwitz said the health department can only make recommendations to the Ohio EPA about the situation, they don’t have any enforcement powers.

Misselwitz said a public hearing on the landfill owners request is scheduled for July 17. At that time they’ll have ore to say about the expansion request.

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