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Rustick Landfill seeks new customers to stay afloat |
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Written by Publisher
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Tuesday, 22 December 2009 |
Photo by Ted Lutz
The Rustick LLC-McKean County Landfill near Hutchins is seeking new customers as it struggles to continue its operation. Rustick, a private company, has operated the former McKean County Landfill for more than four years. The company is hoping to find a major customer that will justify the cost of building a rail spur to the landfill.
HUTCHINS – Rustick LLC is seeking new customers as its struggles to continue its operation at the former McKean County Landfill near Hutchins in Sergeant Township.
“We continue to look at business opportunities,” Rustick President Rich Godshall said Monday. He said the refuse generated in McKean County is insufficient to sustain the landfill operation. “A couple of hundred tons a day is not enough to pay the bills,” Godshall said. “We need other business outside the county.”
Rustick, a private company, took over the county landfill more than four years ago. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued Rustick a permit to handle a maximum of 6,000 tons of garbage a day. Godshall said local haulers now bring only 200 tons of refuse a day for burial in lined “cells” at the landfill.
Rustick also has a permit to construct a railroad siding to bring in garbage by rail from customers throughout the East. Godshall said Rustick is reluctant to spend at least $1 million for the spur until it has a “base” of customers to ship garbage via rail.
Godshall said Rustick is hoping to find customers who would send garbage to the landfill by rail. He said the shipment of garbage via “five to 10 rail cars” a day “would be a nice start” and could justify the cost of building the spur. Track for the spur already is on the site.
The Rustick president said customers who ship garbage to the landfill by rail would serve as “the anchor” for the operation. “We’re looking for those customers who would provide us with volume by rail,” he said.
Godshall also is reaching out to drilling contractors who are involved with natural gas development projects in the deep Marcellus Shale. He said the DEP requires the “proper disposal” of certain “cutting sludge” from the drilling projects. He said Rustick already has accepted over 1,000 tons of drilling waste for burial in its DEP-approved cells.
“We’re looking for more business opportunities with this drilling,” Godshall said. “It would help us out.”
Godshall said poor economic conditions in McKean County are hurting the landfill as well as many other businesses.
“Garbage is down,” he said. The amount of demolition waste also has decreased, he said.
Rustick has reduced its recycling program, which continues to be a losing operation due to poor markets for recyclable materials.
The company’s free collection bins now are located only in Kane (North Fraley Street parking lot), Smethport and Bradford Township. The company once had 38 collection bins in the county. There now are 17.
The University of PIttsburgh at Bradford pays for the recycling collection bins that Rustick has on the college campus.
Meanwhile, Rustick is looking for a new recycling manager. Dick Tyger, the current recycling manager for Rustick, is retiring next week. A Bradford Township supervisor for 12 years, Tyger joined the McKean County Landfill Board of Directors in 1988. He became manager at the county landfill in 2002 and joined Rustick when the company took over the county operation in September 2005.
As long as Rustick’s investors continue their financial support, the landfill will stay in operation, Godshall said. He is hoping to find new customers to increase business.
“Like a lot of other companies, we’re trying to weather the storm,” Godshall said.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
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