AREA LANDFILLS LIKELY TO CLOSE AS NEW REGULATIONS DEADLINE NEARS

Faced with new federal solid waste regulations that could take effect Oct. 1, landfills throughout the nation likely will close regardless if they have more space for trash.

The Cape Girardeau landfill already is being closed and three others in the area situated in Jackson and Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties likely will close when the new "Subtitle D" regulations take effect.

Perry County Clerk Randy Taylor said a county committee this week voted to close the landfill there on Oct. 1.

"The county is investigating whether to build a county transfer station or combine such an effort with the city of Perryville," Taylor said. "It's something they're looking at, but no final decisions have been made."

Regardless, the days of cost-efficient waste disposal at a local landfill are over. "It's going to increase costs, there's no doubt about that," Taylor said.

Taylor said money will have to be spent to build a transfer station which would enable the county to compact trash for hauling to an off-site landfill and then there is the cost of operating the facility and transporting waste.

But another expense is the landfill closing process, which takes years and millions of dollars. The process also is heavily regulated.

Perryville City Administrator Craig Lindsley said it's ironic that the costly process looms when the landfill isn't expected to fill in another nine years.

"We're able to come into compliance with all the new federal regulations except the ground water monitoring requirements," Lindsley said.

"The cost of compliance and to continue monitoring, due to the fact there are only a few years left to use the landfill, it just doesn't pay to keep it open."

Lindsley said the Environmental Protection Agency has said it might extend the Subtitle D deadline another six months. But, he added, that would only delay the inevitable.

"If that happens, then we'll close the landfill in April instead of October," he said.

The extension, though, would give the city sufficient time to build a transfer station so that Perryville's trash wouldn't have to be hauled to another transfer station in the area also an expensive proposition.

"If (Subtitle D) happens in October, we've already made political overtures to the city of Cape Girardeau to bring solid waste down from Perry County," Lindsley said.

Cape Girardeau City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said Cape Girardeau's transfer station can handle the additional 60 tons of waste that would come from Perry County daily.

But he said the operating hours at the transfer station would have to be extended. That and the additional volume would add to maintenance and overtime costs costs that would have to be passed on to Perry County.

"Right now our tipping fees do cover the costs of operating the transfer station," Fischer said. "If we do go into extended hours, and there's additional costs, we might have to add that to it.

"I don't think it would be fair to other customers to pick up the tab, but we'd probably have to work out the fees for Perryville."

Fischer said the arrangement would only be temporary until Perryville built its own transfer station.

But aside from the higher labor and operating costs, maintenance on the equipment could become a problem.

"When you start putting these compactors under the pressure they're under, it does create some maintenance problems more than under normal operation," Fischer said.

Lindsley said he realizes a temporary arrangement with either Cape Girardeau or Ste. Genevieve, which also has a transfer station, would be expensive.

"Based on what we're paying right now to operate our own landfill, that would quadruple our costs," he said. "Even with our own transfer station, the costs still will be significantly higher."

Although no decision has been made as to where Perry County's trash will go before a transfer station is built, one advantage of taking it to Cape Girardeau is that both counties are part of the Region 8 Solid Waste Management District.

"If we build a transfer station, we'll do it so that it fits in harmony with the district," Lindsley said. "To be quite honest this is the type of issue that points more and more to a regional landfill operation."

Lindsley and Fischer both said representatives of the Southeast Missouri solid waste district are more likely to look seriously at a regional landfill as Subtitle D takes effect.

"I think the fact that hardly anyone has a place to take their refuse to anyway, it brings that to the front burner," said Lindsley. "With Subtitle D coming, it has accelerated the intensity level to get this done."

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission is drafting the district's solid waste management plan. Lindsley said the plan will include recommendations regarding regional waste collection and disposal.

"At our last meeting there was a survey of all the entities in the district, and nearly everyone indicated that what we're looking toward is a regional landfill with a sort-and-separation facility for recycling," he said.

"The bottom line is, we'll all be working together; that seems to be the sentiment of the group."

Still, the matter remains up in the air. Fischer said another issue must be resolved before anyone can talk of a regional landfill.

Individual states can become "approved" under the Subtitle D regulations and be subject to less stringent landfill requirements.

But the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has vowed that it won't become an approved state without adequate funding something that's as clouded as the federal regulations that have prompted the conundrum.

If Missouri isn't an approved state by the time Subtitle D takes effect, there will be nowhere in Southeast Missouri to site a landfill.

That's because Subtitle D forbids landfills in earthquake-prone or Karst areas. With the New Madrid fault running through the region and Perry County one of the largest Karst areas in the nation with its myriad underground caverns and surface sinkholes landfills in the region would be prohibited.

And even if the state becomes approved, there won't be a new landfill in the region anytime soon, Fischer said.

"What you're dealing with, you basically don't have any landfills in the district; you're not even sure you want to have a regional landfill; then if you decide that's what you want, it can take five years for approval," he said. "So you can see how big of a problem we're looking at here."