The Tri-County landfill received pushback from residents and activists at a public hearing Wednesday night in the auditorium of Grove City High School.

Tri-County Industries has submitted an application to reopen the closed landfill in Pine and Liberty townships.

The Tri-County trash service is under the ownership of Vogel Holdings Inc. of Mars.

Vogel Disposal in Mars and Seneca Landfill in Jackson Township are under the umbrella of Vogel Holdings, which is the parent of 11 companies involved in trash collection, recycling, landfill development and engineering.

Edward Vogel, vice president of Vogel Holdings, said he attended the meeting with his family and employees.

“Everybody kept quiet and let the people have their say,” Vogel said. “We could have had someone get up, but it would have done nothing but disturb the audience.”

Vogel said while he felt he listened respectfully, many of the arguments proposed were laced with inaccurate information.

“Some of this is plain outright lies,” Vogel said Friday. “They only want people to hear one side and, unfortunately, it's the hysterical side.”

Stephen Shields of Worth Township commutes about 15 minutes every day to work as a pilot for the Grove City Airport.

Shields was one of the first to speak at the hearing with concerns about a reopened landfill drawing in a higher concentration of bird populations.

He said more birds in the air creates a dangerous situation for all pilots who use the airport.

“Who's responsible if an airplane runs into a bird that's obviously attracted there because of the trash?” Shields said.

Shields said he is frustrated that the landfill could reopen despite it being only 1.5 miles from the airport.

He referenced a federally mandated buffer of 6 miles between an airport and landfill.

Shields said by presenting higher risks to pilots and their planes, those who house and have their planes flown out of the airport might find a safer home elsewhere.

“We've heard from these people that they will take the airplanes somewhere else if they approve this trash mountain,” Shields said.

“Trash mountain” is the nickname of the landfill created by an activist group known as the Citizens Environmental Association of the Slippery Rock Area (CEASRA), which also had members speak at the meeting.

“Sort of like you don't trust the fox to clean up what he's already contaminated,” said Jane Cleary, a member of the group. “He's not the person to trust to clean this up.”

Cleary, a resident of Pine Township, Mercer County, said the group has been in opposition to the landfill reopening for many years.

She said she has issues with the application. She said there are parts that make the landfill sound like a reopened site and parts that make the site sound like an entirely new landfill, which would nullify the application.

“He's not the most reliable person,” Cleary said of Vogel. “He's been deceptive and sloppy in this permit application.”

Cleary said she is concerned about bird-strike issues, but also about the materials being brought into the landfill.

According to Cleary's understanding, Tri-County will accept materials that could compromise the water — including such items as sewage sludge, acid mine drainage sludge and fracking byproduct — that she said could be radioactive.

“We'll have radioactive material leaching into the groundwater and becoming part of our drinking water,” Cleary said.

Vogel said these claims are misconstrued and misrepresented.

Vogel said he has done studies with bird experts, and intends to follow modern landfill practices and protocols, mirroring those his company implements at the Seneca Landfill.

He said the only difference will be the timing of work done at the plant with more activity taking place at night.

Vogel said there will not be hazardous material buried at the site, and there will be strictly municipal waste coming into the landfill.

He said municipal waste could include byproducts from manufacturing, but everything is scanned for radioactivity as it enters the site and as it is processed.

“Everybody is very concerned about that stuff, and there is a lot of protocol and a lot of training involved,” Vogel said.

Vogel said he plans to bring the Tri-County landfill to modern standards, and he hopes people will see through the “sensationalism” he witnessed at the hearing.

Earlier this year, Seneca Landfill in Jackson Township, owned by the Vogel family, earned an Environmental Excellence award from the office of Gov. Tom Wolf for a fueling station that was built over the past year.

The station converts methane gas generated by decomposing garbage in the landfill into compressed natural gas. Garbage trucks pull up and use the CNG instead of gasoline to fill up their fuel tanks.

“It's a way of making sure that down the road, nothing ever does cause a problem by digging it up and bringing it up to modern standards,” Vogel said.