Our landfill host fee is necessary

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GLEN CASTORE, Guest columnist

In December 2007, Bridgewater Township enacted a Landfill Host Fee of $1 per ton as allowed by Minnesota Statute 115A.921. The law was passed in the mid-1980s to provide an incentive for townships to allow landfills in their jurisdictions. In 2008 the township will receive approximately $140,000 annually. The host fee provides townships with modest resources to plan, monitor and contribute to landfill improvements and remediation.

Why did the Bridgewater supervisors decide to impose the fee now? Who pays? What happens to the money?

We became aware of the fee in 2007 while developing township zoning ordinances. We view the fee as a means of taking responsibility now for problems the landfill may cause for future generations of Bridgewater residents.

Over the last 40 or so years somewhere between 3 and 4 million cubic yards of garbage has been dumped in Bridgewater Township. The “Hoover dump” was a local unregulated dump site used through the 1950s and ‘60s by people throughout Rice County and beyond. It is a polluted site containing some toxic materials.

The Rice County Landfill is quite a different situation. Rice County has made tremendous improvements in waste handling since the current landfill opened in 1973. They have centralized waste collection, upgraded landfill cell designs, implemented a recycling program and established a hazardous waste facility. However there is a concern that the funds set aside by Rice County, currently about $1.7 million, for dealing with landfill problems may prove inadequate. The landfill sits on the banks of the Cannon River and contains several unlined cells from its earliest days. Dealing with any problem in a landfill can be very expensive. This year Albert Lea will spend about $4.5 million to move material in a closed, unlined 20-acre dump to a nearby modern landfill.

The fee is paid by the residents and businesses that use the landfill and does not draw upon the county general fund or property tax revenues. The average cost per user was about $4.60 for the entire year 2008.

Twenty-five percent of the fee must go into an account designated for landfill remediation. If the landfill recycles 85 percent or more of the material it receives then the fee is eliminated. We would be very pleased if the fee disappears for that reason. The balance is being applied to projects related to landfill operation or environmental improvements in the township. Examples of projects to be funded in 2009 are:

1. Additional maintenance and dust control for township roads leading to the landfill.

2. A stream inventory to identify opportunities for improving water quality in Heath, Springbrook and Wolf creeks.

3. Assisting Bridgewater landowners with construction of water control structures to reduce the movement of soil sediment and chemicals into area streams, rivers and lakes.

4. Assisting with repairs to deteriorated foot/horseback trails in the Rice County Wilderness Park, if Rice County wants the assistance.

5. Helping fund a study of ways to convert Rice County waste streams to fuel or electricity.

6. Encouraging recycling.

— Glen Castore is a Bridgewater Township supervisor.