NEW LONDON -- Kandiyohi County's landfill is growing, both upward and outward.
Crews are in the process of expanding the landfill to include another four-acre cell that will provide enough storage for the next three to five years, depending on the flow of garbage.
Currently about 35,000 tons of garbage is buried at the sanitary landfill every year. If that tonnage increases, the life of the new cell will be shortened.
But there is enough land in the 80 acres that's currently permitted to last another 30 years, said County Administrator Wayne Thompson.
After that, there are nearly 200 more acres of available land.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We've got many years left at the landfill," Thompson said.
Recycling has helped extend the life of the landfill.
Director of Environmental Services Jeff Bredberg estimates that about 30 percent of the potential landfill garbage is being recycled by businesses and households. He said a burst of enthusiasm for recycling in 1990 got the program off to a good start in Kandiyohi County. He said that has leveled off, however, and more recycling could be done.
This expansion of the landfill will cost $439,000, which is a relative drop in the bucket for the county's $4.4 million solid waste fund budget. That fund also includes money for the recycling and household hazardous waste programs.
The landfill revenue helps that fund maintain a positive balance. Thompson said the county has never levied a tax on the landfill.
The process for expanding the landfill involves a number of steps that are designed to keep the garbage contained and protect ground water.
After excavating the sandy soil at the landfill to create a basin for the cell, a two-foot layer of heavy clay was compacted over the entire cell. That was covered with a thick, heavy plastic liner.
After the state inspects that phase of the project, a 12-inch layer of sand will go on top of the plastic and pipes will be laid in the sand. The pipes will drain away leachate -- the liquid residue that seeps from garbage. The leachate is collected in two 15,000-gallon, underground storage tanks and transported to the Twin Cities to be treated, said Bredberg.
ADVERTISEMENT
After the pipes are installed, county landfill workers will begin pushing a stockpile of garbage into the new area.
A big hill of garbage has been visible from U.S. Highway 71 all summer, creating an eyesore that's not common for the Kandiyohi County landfill. That stockpile was needed in order to have a six-foot layer of garbage on the base of the cell before winter freeze-up, said Bredberg.
"Until the new cell gets built, we're just getting higher," he said.
Several fires at the landfill last month caused some excitement. The fire was burning under the garbage, much like a peat fire, said Bredberg. That made it very difficult to control and put out. Fire crews were at the landfill three days in a row.
It was a bugger to get out," said Bredberg. It didn't cause any damage and no one was hurt. It was "just one of those little landfill fires" that kept "rekindling back up."
It's not clear what started the fire. It could have been hot ashes brought in from a burning barrel, oily rags or even spontaneous combustion. The fire happened during a stretch of unusually hot weather.
Mary Peterson, who has worked at the landfill for 19 years, said this was only the second time since she's been there that there has been a fire.
