By Kim Se-jeong
Incheon has agreed to extend its contract with Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to allow them to use a landfill site there until 2025.
Under the contract, signed by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, Gyeonggi Governor Nam Kyung-pil and Environmental Minister Yoon Seong-kyu, Saturday, Seoul and Gyeonggi will be able to dump household waste in the landfill site.
They also agreed to set up their own landfill site which will be used after 2025.
The deal came after a yearlong conflict between Incheon and other municipal governments over the use of the landfill site.
The landfill site is divided into four sections. The first section was filled in 2000 and was closed. When allowing use of the second section, Incheon said it would allow Seoul and Gyeonggi to use it only until 2016, citing environmental damage and residents’ complaints related to the site.
Under the new agreement, Incheon will own more than 16 million square meters of land on the site. Currently, Seoul owns 71.3 percent of the land and the ministry, the rest. Incheon will also take over the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp., which was established by the environmental ministry in 2000. The three began to bury waste at the site in 1992.