The Troy city landfill is nearly full and will likely be closed to public use by the end of the year, city officials have said.

The 10-acre landfill site located off Henderson Highway has only a small tract of land still usable for burying waste, after more than two decades of use by the city, citizens and businesses

“Due to the current volume of usage at the landfill and the amount of waste people are disposing of … it is beginning to fill up, and we’re going to have to make a determination pretty quickly about when to close it,” said Troy Public Works director Vaughn Daniels.

Classified as a construction and demolition landfill, no household garbage or metal is disposed of there. It is used by the city, but is open to any citizens of Troy or businesses for a fee.

Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford said a change in Alabama Department of Environmental Management guidelines several years ago forced the city to begin burying materials deposited in the landfill instead of piling it.

“At one time we were permitted to take the landfill into the air and make a big hill out of it, but ADEM cut that out four or five years ago,” Lunsford said.

The landfill is now running out of space to bury waste much faster than anticipated. Daniels said a Waste Management study conducted in 2005 estimated the landfill had five years of use left.

“We’re now a little bit ahead of that,” he said.

Daniels said growth in Troy’s population, increased amount of construction and clean up from recent storms have probably all contributed to an increase in the volume of waste coming into the landfill.

No date for a closure has been determined, but Lunsford said he expects the landfill to close to public use by the end of the year. He does not anticipate that the city will attempt to construct a new landfill because of the difficulty in getting permits and securing a location.

“It is probably not something we are going to try to do,” Lunsford said.

Citizens will be able to take construction and demolition waste to a privately owned landfill located near the city’s landfill.

The city will also continue its current practice of transporting household garbage it collects to the landfill in Brundidge, which is also open to citizens of Pike County.