Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Some area residents are pushing a petition asking the Unified Disposal board of directors to change its mind and find an alternative to starting a new land fill about three miles east of Havre. “I am concerned that it is too close to town,” said June Myskewitz, who owns land on Clear Creek Road about three miles from the proposed landfill. Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent, a member of the Unified Disposal Board, said the board had to make a decision on how to continue to dispose of trash from three counties without major increases in the rates for the service. “The people on this committee represent the interests of the community as a whole,” Vincent said. He said the board has been working for several years to find the least-expensive alternative for trash disposal. Vincent said that he realizes people may not want the landfill in their backyard, but the proposed site was the best the board could find. The board will listen to ideas for alternatives, he added. “We’re open to any suggestions, but they can’t just say, I don’t want it here,’” he said. The board has already purchased the land, about three miles east of Havre, where the proposed landfill would be, and is continuing to pursue its creation, he said. The board mostly comprises elected officials including mayors, city council members and county commissioners from three counties. The landfill was created to serve people in Blaine, northern Chouteau and Hill counties, with Havre producing about 65 percent of the trash deposited there, Vincent said. Local residents, starting April 3, distributed petitions in the area opposing the location, and say they have collected several hundred signatures so far. Jim Brough, who owns land about a mile from the proposed landfill, said the board needs to look for a different site. “Nobody out there wants it,” he said. “There are a lot of people who don’t want it that close to their homes.” Brough said one concern is blowing trash. He picked up a pickup load of trash last week that had blown from vehicles going to the existing landfill, nine miles east of Havre. “All of the garbage at the landfill is now on the road and on property,” he said. Vincent said he realizes that any landfill will have problems with trash, but until people are better about covering their vehicles to prevent trash from blowing out while being transported to the landfill, or people reduce the amount of trash they produce, there isn’t much to be done about that. The landfill uses high fences to catch the trash that blows away, and pays Hi-Line chapters of 4-H $1,500 twice a year to collect the loose trash, he said. Myskewitz said that she has concerns along with the problem of blowing trash. “I think the potential of toxics being blown towards town from the landfill (is a concern), all the pollution and things that go with it, all the paper and the animals and all the things that are harbored out there at the dump,” she said. Myskewitz said she and others are concerned about contamination of groundwater and wells. Another issue is access to the proposed site. Current roads would require the trash to be hauled out 14th Avenue and Clear Creek Road, with an access road probably needing to be built from Clear Creak Road to the site. Vincent said the board is pursuing another option, creating a road from U. S. Highway 2 directly to the site, but has hit a stumbling block on that. Vincent said property owners from whom the board would have to buy property or get easements to make the road are not returning calls about the proposal. He said he has called one owner five or six times in the last six months or so with no return call. The board is looking into using eminent domain, the seizure of property for use in the public interest, with compensation to the owner to obtain the property for the new road, but is not receiving support for that either, he said. Using eminent domain would require a petition by the landowners in the area, but the board has only received a couple of signatures in support of that, Vincent said. If the petition fails and the people who own the property don’t agree to let the road be built, Vincent said, the only alternative will be to go down 14th Avenue and Clear Creek Road. The space being used in the current landfill will soon be filled, and to meet regulations to expand at that site will require adding a liner on new land used, he said. That would require about $1 million in addition to normal operation expenses to prepare the land for use for five to six years, Vincent said, with another expense this next cost likely to be closer to $2 million with inflation every five to six years. “The rates would be really, really high,” he said. The board looked at land throughout the area to find a site with a high concentration of clay in the soil with rock below it and found it at the proposed site, he said. The site, which is in an area primarily used for agriculture, has a high concentration of clay and no ground water could be found with multiple drills down to 300 feet, he said. “Before we even did that, we tried to find a spot as far away from residences as we could,” Vincent said. “We’re not trying to mess up people’s property.” Vincent said the board also looked at the costs of shipping the trash to Great Falls. That would cost even more than using liners, he said, due to the shipping costs and the rates charged by the dump at Great Falls. The charges for the trash disposal are included in local property taxes, Vincent said. Before the landfill could be created, the Unfified Board will have to submit an application to the state Department of Environmental Quality, which will assess the site. Rick Thompson, DEQ waste management section supervisor, said he can’t make any specific comments until an application is received. “We can’t act until something is submitted,” Thompson said. “The site selection is up to the owner-operator.” The soil composition of a site could allow it to be used without a liner, he said. If the soil quality is not right, a liner would be required, he said. That entails putting a two-foot clay liner in the landfill with a plastic liner over it, Thompson said. It generally also requires building a system of pipes to suck out any liquids that accumulate in the landfill to treat and recycle them, he said. The primary consideration is to protect the environment, particularly groundwater, he said. “All landfills have to be built to state and federal standards,” he said. He said that in many communities, including Gallatin County and Lewis and Clark County, the town grows up right around the landfill. “(In Helena,) the density of the homes next to it continues to increase,” Thomspon said. “They are building right next to the landfill.” Vincent said unless a workable alternative that won’t require substantial tax increases is found, the board will continue to work on developing the new landfill. “We don’t have a choice because people continue to produce garbage,” he said. “It certainly isn’t going down.”
