BATH

Bath City Council will hear a presentation about the final phase of development at the city’s landfill at a special meeting tonight.

Bath Deputy Public Works Director Lee Leiner said Monday that the city is looking to create a disposal cell for waste, the final phase of a development plan the city submitted to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in the 2001-02 time frame.

City Manager Bill Giroux said voters would have to approve funding for the project through a referendum in November. The workshop will give councilors a chance to understand what is involved in the project as well as scheduling a referendum so the disposal cell can be constructed next year.

Leiner said the development plan for the landfill has three phases. The first phase is referred to as the old landfill, the portion built before rules required the kind of “secure bathtub” infrastructure that exists at the landfill today. Phase two has been operating since 2003, and the city is proposing the build phase three, which is the final phase. The cell will have about four acres of impervious bottom and 354,000 cubic yards of air space created.

“The timeline for filling that is related to how fast you put (waste) in,” Leiner said.

There is always a question about how much waste the landfill takes in, how much revenue is made from the waste and how much it costs to build and operate the facility. It is like an equation with several variables.

The presenters will speak more about what is involved in the project and discuss the price tag.

Giroux said the presentation will be replayed several times in the fall on Bath Community Television so people get a chance to hear the information and make up their mind as to whether they want to authorize the landfill project.

Landfilling has proven to be the affordable way to handle waste, Giroux said. At some point, likely around 2025, he said the city will start studying alternative methods of waste disposal.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

dmoore@timesrecord.com