Amarillo officials share plans for expanding city landfill

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The City of Amarillo is sharing it’s 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.

“Everybody calls it the city dump but really it’s an asset to the community because we need a place to put the stuff that we don’t need anymore. And I think it’s a good message to the residents that we’re continuing to stay up to speed on that, and make sure we have capacity so we can continue into the future to provide good service,” Pishkur said.

The city hopes to complete the cell by the beginning of November of this year.

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