The county waste authority plans to open a satellite trash transfer station in northern Lancaster County that would reduce truck traffic on local highways and Harrisburg Pike.
The Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority board Friday morning approved the $1.06 million purchase of a 13-acre industrial tract in East Cocalico Township next to the Denver toll booths for the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The tract, zoned light industrial, is being bought from Kasun Development Corp., of East Petersburg.
Authority officials said one major community benefit for a new transfer station is to reduce truck traffic at the increasingly busy Harrisburg Pike corridor at the entrance of Lancaster city.
The current transfer station sits amid a busy concentration of uses, including Park City Center, Route 30, Long’s Park and now The Crossings at Conestoga Creek shopping center.
The waste authority estimates the satellite transfer station would divert 7-10 percent of the 450 trash trucks and private vehicles that now use the Harrisburg Pike facility daily.
That would reduce traffic on busy Route 30, Route 222, Oregon Pike and local roads, according to the authority.
An estimated 32,000 tons of waste a year collected at the new satellite transfer station would be taken on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the authority’s waste-to-energy incinerator in Harrisburg, rather than to the incinerator in Conoy Township, further reducing truck traffic in some parts of the country. The new transfer station would handle about 10 percent of the tonnage now taken to Harrisburg Pike.
“You’re really keeping our trucks off of other public roads,” Bob Zorbaugh, the authority’s co-CEO, told the authority board Friday morning.
The new project is to alleviate vehicle congestion and reduce waste volumes at the main transfer station. It is not to allow out-of county waste to come to Lancaster County, said spokeswoman Katie Sandoe.
Currently, the transfer station is the central gathering point for private trash disposal trucks from throughout the county.
Waste trucks bring collected trash and recyclable materials to the station. The material is then taken in the authority’s large transfer trucks to Conoy Township or to the Frey Farm Landfill in Manor Township for unburnable construction and demolition materials.
The authority said a new transfer station, to cost between $5 million to $7 million, would better serve commercial trash haulers, businesses and residents in the fast-growing part of Lancaster County.
The transfer station would likely serve East Cocalico, West Cocalico, Brecknock, Caernarvon, Clay, Earl and East Earl townships, as well as Adamstown, Denver, New Holland and and Terre Hill boroughs.
“This future facility would help LCSWMA better manage waste consolidation in a growing market,” Zorbaugh said.
“As we continue to see record waste tonnage growth in Lancaster County, it’s important we’re positioned to handle this waste safely and efficiently.”
Another advantage to the project would be trash-disposal companies serving northern Lancaster County would have reduced travel.
Residents with small loads of waste also would be able to use the transfer station.
East Cocalico Township would begin receiving a “host fee” from the authority. How much has not been determined.
“Having a local transfer station at a strategic location at the Denver Interchange will greatly benefit all of the residents and businesses in northern Lancaster County with improved convenience and service,” said Scott Russell, township manager.
The authority will now design the 24,000-square-foot transfer station complex and seek permits needed from the township, PennDOT and the state Department of Environmental Protection. The new transfer station would be about half the size of the one on Harrisburg Pike.
The authority estimated the transfer station will open in three to five years.