New landfill up and running, despite wind trouble

Havre Daily News/Nikki Carlson

Before the wind begins to pick up, Unified Disposal Landfill manager Brad Tommerup on the east side of the new landfill sucks trash stuck along a 25-foot-tall fence with a Litter Critter vacuum Friday afternoon. Tommerup said that on non-windy days landfill employees will spend about two hours sucking up trash along the landfill's surrounding fences. Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent said a lot of the trash blowing around at the landfill, which opened the end of October and collects trash from Hill, Blaine and Chouteau counties — could decrease if the public recycled and disposed of garbage tied off in plastic bags.

The new local landfill has been running for more than two months, and the Hill County sanitarian said this morning all seems to be operating smoothly.

But he did ask the public for help on one issue — reducing the amount of trash that blows out of the pits and containers.

"The biggest problem has been with the wind out there, " Sanitarian Clay Vincent said. "Whether we're at the old site or the new site, we would still have to deal with the wind. "

The new landfill, located just east of Havre and serving Hill, Blaine and northern Chouteau counties, was built after a sometimes-contentious search for a location to replace the old landfill, about 10 miles east on U. S. Highway 2.

The previous location was opened in the 1980s, with a projected life of 100 years. After the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency changed regulations on landfills in the 1990s, the cost of that site became prohibitive, representatives of the Unified Disposal Board that oversees the landfill said.

In 2009, the cost of liners that would have to be used in each new pit dug at that site was estimated at $1 million each.

After surveying sites throughout the area, the consultant hired to research finding a new site recommended the location that opened in October. He said the geologic formations under the location would allow the site to operate without needing to use liners, providing an estimated annual savings of $150,000 to $200,000.

Vincent said the operations at the new landfill are running smoothly, especially with the lack of wintry weather so far. Some 20 to 25 commercial trucks are bringing in garbage from communities in the three counties served as well as numerous local residents bringing in trash themselves. The work of transferring the trash to the pits and covering it with a layer of soil each day has been going well, he said.

But, with the windy weather in the last few weeks, dealing with blowing trash has been difficult. Vincent said the landfill has both tall and smaller fences set to catch trash blowing out of the pits — or blowing away while loads are being dumped, before it even gets into the pit — and has portable litter screens that also help catch trash before it blows away.

He said those systems catch probably 99 percent of the trash before it blows out of the landfill area. The personnel at the site clean up the trash, including using a heavy-duty vacuum mounted on a trailer, the fences and other parts of the landfill and trash that blows out of the landfill.

But, Vincent said, that takes time, and the landfill typically has to close one to one-and-a-half hours early to clean up the blowing refuse.

That can cause problems for the trucks bringing trash, some of which are traveling 40 to 50 miles to come to the landfill. Vincent said the landfill staff members try to notify the commercial vehicles that the site will be closing early so the trucks don't come for no reason, but said people served by the landfill also could help considerably.

Vincent said the biggest way to help is by making sure trash is placed in bags or sacks which are tied off on top before placing them in the trash cans. Loose trash thrown in the dumpsters is the biggest cause of the problem, he said. It even causes problems in town, with trash blowing down the street or into people's yards when it escapes from the dumpsters.

Another way people can help is by tying plastic bags or sheets — the biggest cause of blowing trash — in a knot before throwing them away.

"Plastic sacks are not our friend out there, " Vincent said.

Another option is recycling, which could greatly reduce the amount of trash that blows away at the landfill. Vincent said huge amounts of cardboard and plastic, as well as other recyclable items, come to the landfill every day. People could be separating those items and taking them to recycling centers right in town, he said.

The landfill itself is set to help with recycling in the long term, with a section reserved to be used for that purpose once funding is found to start a program. Recycle Hi-Line has been working to increase recycling in the area, and to find funding to set up a system at the landfill, and Vincent encouraged people to help that organization in its efforts.

He said the landfill itself has been working on recycling plastic herbicide containers, including recently starting to work with a Montana Department of Agriculture program to do so. Some 5,000 30-gallon containers have been disposed of in the last few months, he said.

Vincent said agricultural producers and the companies that deal with herbicides need to remember to empty and triple rinse those containers so the landfill can recycle them.

He added that he believes the disposal board is effectively dealing with disposing of the trash produced locally, and the new site is working well for that purpose.