King County, Wash., Officials Consider Landfill Expansion

King County, Wash., officials are considering expanding the Cedar Hills Regional landfill to accommodate tons of trash from more than 1.5 million people in the county. However, neighbors of the landfill are fighting the proposed expansion.  

Some King County leaders want to extend the landfill’s operation for another 20 years and use the area known as cell 9 as a trash site, according to a Q13 Fox News report. Right now, cell 9 consists of parking spaces and trailers, and it would allow an extra 25 acres to be used to stockpile garbage.

The report also notes that the “stockpile of garbage has grown larger and taller over the decades, standing 788 feet above sea level in some parts of the landfill.”

Q13 Fox News has more details:

The decades old feud over the only landfill in King County is reaching another level of contention as neighbors try to fight an expansion on the table. But some county leaders say the expansion is the most viable option to accommodate the tons of trash in King County.

The Cedar Hills Regional landfill has been around for more than five decades. It started relatively small, but now it’s grown to the size of nearly 700 football fields.

The trash from more than 1.5 million people get dumped into the 920 acre landfill nestled between Renton and Maple Valley.

Read the full article here.