Landfill fee changes explained

At the Thermopolis Town Council’s Aug. 6 meeting, council approved an emergency ordinance raising landfill charges from $7.35 per cubic yard to $12.

Mayor’s Assistant Fred Crosby explained the town’s Sanitation Enterprise Fund — which covers things like landfill and trash pickup — ended the fiscal year on June 30 with about $130,000 in the red, mainly due to overhauling the track loader and $82,000 in tire shredding.

“Those costs are normal costs,” Crosby said. “They just came at an unanticipated time.” Already starting out the 2019-20 fiscal year in the red, with the hailstorm damage the landfill is receiving hundreds of cubic yards of construction debris a day. On a smaller scale, debris from the hospital construction is also taken to the landfill. That means the landfill cell that was expected to last another is filling up quickly and a new cell will have to be dug soon.

Costs associated with new cells include staking it out, mapping it and platting. Further, it has to be approved by the Department of Environmental Quality or Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s not just going out and digging a hole,” Crosby said, noting that topography is also taken into account. “We actually have to fill a portion of the cell we’re digging with dirt and excavate other portions, and it’s hard rock underneath.”

When the current landfill permit expires on June 22, 2020, Crosby said, new cells will be required to be lined and such costs could be up to $1 million. For this reason the town has been looking into a transfer station, and Crosby noted the town will likely get an extension for the current permit while getting the station going. He hopes to get a permit to carry on with the current landfill as a construction and demolition waste facility a day or two each week, adding a new dynamic.

A lot of tires are starting to show up and the landfill again, and the permit only allows for so many. The town previously shredded over 20,000, Crosby estimated, but there are problems with people not wanting to pay for tire disposal. That means tires are showing up in dumpsters, alleys and vacant lots. Director of Public Works Ernie Slagle noted at a recent town council meeting that someone dumped a bunch at Kirby in the middle of the night.

“We’ve run into a lot of problems with folks saying they didn’t used to have to pay but they are paying now,” Crosby said. He noted there are more people monitoring the gate, whereas previously landfill crews were working the pits and didn’t catch those coming in. Anyone can take regular household trash to the landfill, he further explained, but if you mix it with items such as yard debris or an old leaking swimming pool “that changes it; then you pay.”

Clean wood and metal are free, but again, if other items that require you to pay are mixed in, you’re going to pay. He encourages landfill users to “be patient with the gate guys. It doesn’t do you any good to argue with them or fight. They’re just enforcing the rules that the mayor and council, or EPA and DEQ, have set.”

As for the landfill itself, Crosby said, “The fellas out there at the dump are doing an absolute excellent job. I think that landfill is looking as good as it’s ever looked. I know that to be the case, because we get good reviews from the DEQ and EPA on it.” He challenges anyone to go to the landfill and find where any excess has been spent, as the equipment is parked in a shad with a dirt floor, water comes from a tank and the restroom is a port-a-john. There is basic electricity and limited cell phone service.

In regard to the transfer station, Crosby emphasized this is not a dump. Rather, it’s a metal building vehicles back into to dump loads. The garbage is then pushed into a semi trailer, and everything is all contained. Plans are to have it located near the runway of the old airport, and should be very low key.

Crosby said former mayors Bill Malloy and Mike Mortimore, and current mayor Mike Chimenti have been telling people there’s likely to be some big expenses for trash service — whether we do it or contract it out — and it’s probably the biggest pressing issue we have right now.

The town owns the dump, Crosby explained, and when it closes the town still has to monitor it for 20-30 years. Wells will have to be pumped and checked every so often, and ground cover has to be a certain thickness and compaction, just to name a couple of the requirements, so there will be some tremendous costs in “buttoning it up.” He estimates the costs to be about as much to build the transfer station, and around $2-2.5 million for both processes.