Work and public consultation is going smoothly to expand the 51-year-old Ridge Landfill in Blenheim.
Another public open house is scheduled for early in the new year.
Waste Connections of Canada Ltd., which owns and operates the landfill, expects to submit plans before Christmas for an environmental assessment to expand its capacity and life by an extra 20 years beyond 2021.
Project Manager Cathy Smith says it'll be at least 18 months before physical expansion work starts.
"We'd like to get it done sooner than later because the environmental assessment piece itself, the studies could take a year," says Smith.
The expansion will include a public drop-off depot to allow residents to divert materials which are not being collected in the current residential recycling program and the construction of a new community activity centre.
The landfill receives non-hazardous industrial, commercial and institutional waste from across the province and local residential waste.
Smith says the landfill provides safe, local and economical disposal along with financial contributions to Chatham-Kent.
Smith says the landfill expansion could be vertical as well as horizontal.
"We do have an opportunity to visit a vertical expansion of parts of the old landfill because they were never developed to significant height," Smith says.
Smith says the overall landfill footprint may not end up being double because other options are being explored.
"It could be significantly smaller than that but until we get into the detailed design piece in the EA, we won't know what that looks like. So, it could be yes or no," says Smith.