But spokesman Richard Fulton said the DEP would "prefer a time frame that was less than four months."
Ronald C. Nunnenkamp, the township clerk and administrator for Winslow Township, who worked on the closing plan with the township solicitor and engineer, said the DEP may not be aware of some of the reductions in trash flow.
"We've had major cutbacks on the volume of waste we've been taking in since we stopped all commercial and industrial dumping here," Nunnenkamp said. "Also, we, along with the other towns that dump here, have had a successful recycling plan that I don't think the DEP is taking into account."
If the DEP finds the closing date unacceptable, Fulton said, the matter would be turned over to the enforcement officials of the department.
"They'd go out and investigate the capacity more specifically and make topography maps if they had to," Fulton said. "They could conceivably issue a directive and force a closing date on the landfill if they find it necessary."
Winslow, Waterford Township, Chesilhurst, Berlin and Berlin Township use the 45-acre landfill, which is on Piney Hollow Road. It has been operating for 25 years.
The township has until Sept. 29 to submit to the state a revised plan for financing a 30-year monitoring program after the landfill closes.
