Hopkins Landfill to Get $3.4 Million Upgrade

People living in one Hopkins neighborhood are dealing with a problem buried right next door.

The 41-year-old landfill near homes on 7th Street is leaking methane, a flammable, explosive gas. It's why the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is planning to consolidate the waste, then cover it with protective plastic. The $3.4million dollar upgrade is scheduled to start in October, and it means a major, messy and smelly disruption.

According to Peter Tiffany of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, "there is going to be a noise issue, and there will be odors present because landfill gas does smell." But Tiffany explains that the work is necessary. The landfill is ranked at the top of the MPCA's risk priority list of sites that need to be fixed. " It's because of the close proximity of hundreds of people living right here that it has now made to number one," says Tiffany.

When the landfill was built in 1971, Tiffany explains that it met standards at the time. Now, decades later, it falls short of modern standards.