Wichita ? State environmental officials may not have strictly followed state law when they reviewed a controversial landfill request in Harper County, a recent state audit says.

That has the Kansas Department of Health and Environment planning to change how it looks over landfill projects, requiring more coordination with local health officials and greater accuracy from companies making the applications.

The report from the Legislative Division of Post Audit said the state largely followed state law and found numerous problems with a request to build a 229-acre landfill 45 miles southwest of Wichita.

But auditors said reviewers didn’t verify the accuracy of some of the information provided by Waste Connections Inc., a Folsom, Calif.-based company that is developing the landfill. They also said the department didn’t check if local health departments had concerns.

Critics are afraid the landfill could contaminate the Chikaskia River, which is about one mile from the proposed site and is fed by a stream that flows about 100 yards away from the property. The Chikaskia provides drinking water to 25,000 residents in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma.

Department Secretary Roderick Bremby, in his written response to the audit, said reviewers now would require applicants to give them letters from local health officials. He also said the department would do a better job of making sure information was accurate.

Bremby’s department has put its review of the Harper County landfill request on hold as it waits for the outcome of a lawsuit between Waste Connections and Tri-County Concerned Citizens Inc., a group of landfill opponents.

Critics of the landfill said they viewed the audit as evidence they were correct in fighting the project.