The City of Amarillo is sharing its plans for expanding the city landfill to meet future needs. The city will be constructing a 10th cell, which is an open area in the landfill to dump at. “Here’s the math, there’s 12 cell areas available. We’ve now used and filled two completely, we’re using the third and fourth cell and we’re building the fifth cell, which is cell 10,” says Buzz Pishkur, interim public works director for the City of Amarillo.
The city is hoping that the addition will add 10 to 15 years of additional life to the landfill. “The landfill, for people who haven’t been out there, there’s about 660 acres and it’s laid out for twelve cells. Cells are basically a hole in the ground that we put garbage in and fill them back up and then we reclaim them,” said Pishkur.
The end cost of the project is estimated to be around $4 million. “Well, we charge for garbage collection and so from those revenues we then take the money and invest it in the landfill and operating the landfill,” says Pishkur. Construction started in June of 2023 and is currently at 50% completion.