The state is close to handing over the final $5 million installment of its share of the cost to close and seal off a former 80-acre landfill in Hartford’s North Meadows.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Tuesday the state bond commission is expected to approve funding when it meets July 13 toward stabilizing the huge refuse mound, visible from Interstate 91 at Jennings Road, by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority.
The quasi-public refuse and recycling agency previously had received $3 million from the state toward capping the landfill with soil and vegetation, said spokesman Paul Nonnemacher.
Originally, the state had pledged $15 million toward the $46 million cost to close and cap the site, Nonnemacher said. But fulfilling its pledge fell into doubt once the state encountered its budget morass.
“We were holding our breath that we would get the $5 million,” he said. “This is good news.”
CRRA leased the property from the city of Hartford, using it as a landfill for its municipal customers’ garbage and incinerator ash from 1982 until Dec. 31, 2008.
The state funds means less money in tipping fees from the pockets of the 70 cities and towns that relied on CRRA’s former Mid-Connecticut Project  landfill to take their garbage, Nonnemacher said.
