LANDFILL TO SERVE REGION CONSIDERED

One issue a newly formed regional solid waste district is expected to examine is whether a suitable site can be found in the area for a landfill.

With only five landfills operating within the district, a publicly owned site for the entire region could save on disposal costs for cities within the district.

Cape Girardeau's landfill, which is nearly full, is used only sparingly. The remainder of the time, trash is compacted at the city's transfer station then hauled to a private landfill in Dexter.

Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink said hauling costs for the 50-mile trip total nearly $125,000 annually. The total cost for hauling and disposal at Lemon's Landfill in Dexter is about $480,000 a cost that's increased about 25 percent over the past three years.

Landfills also tend to provoke apprehension in most people, and the prospect of locating one near any population center is doubtful.

In the past decade, Cape Girardeau city councils have spent a considerable amount of time dealing with the question of trash disposal.

Three sites for new city landfills one on Highway 74 near Dutchtown, another about two miles north of the existing city landfill and the third, a 70-acre site adjacent to the landfill were abandoned.

Those and subsequent efforts to find a suitable landfill site have met with extreme public opposition, Stoverink said.

"Our hands have been tied by soil types and opposition from people against any landfill sited near their property," he said.

But Stoverink said he hoped the regional solid waste district would be able to consider a large enough area to enable officials to find a suitable landfill site.

"It may not be near Cape Girardeau, and they may not even be able to site one," he said.

Tom Tucker, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, said he expects the district to at least consider the matter.

But, he added, stringent Department of Natural Resources environmental regulations make establishing a landfill very difficult and expensive.

"The DNR regulations are a difficulty, and it costs millions of dollars," he said. "It would be my guess that it costs several million dollars just to initiate a landfill."

Southeast Missouri's topography and soil structure don't help matters, Tucker said. He said the sink holes and caves in much of the district's northern counties, for example, add further restrictions and safeguards for landfills.

"We've got an area that has some ecological sensitivity," he said. "Of course, the next issue is nobody wants a landfill next door."

Richard Sheets, senior staff associate at the Missouri Municipal League, said he doubts Missouri has licensed any new landfills in the past five or six years.

"The trend has been that DNR is just not licensing new landfills," Sheets said. "Even expanding existing ones, they're not approving them."

Harold Morton, director of solid waste for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, admitted that developing a landfill is expensive. But he said regional, districtwide landfills are a good way to consolidate resources and, in the long run, save money.

"I think the additional regulations have produced a trend for larger, regional landfills, because when there are such high costs for design and planning, there's an economy-of-scale associated with doing that regionally," Morton said.

Stoverink also said that due to the high cost, any savings realized from its operation particularly if operated on a local level only might be negligible.

"I couldn't see any real decrease in the tipping fees even if we had our own landfill," he said. "There probably wouldn't be a whole lot of difference."

The city started transfer station operations in 1989, hoping for at least a temporary reprieve in the quest for a new landfill. The city has since compacted its trash at the facility and contracted with a private firm to have it hauled to Lemon's Landfill in Dexter.

Sheets said few Missouri communities have copied Cape Girardeau and opted for transfer stations, although many now face the hassle and expense of hauling solid waste to one of the about 30 available landfills in Missouri.

A transfer station can partially solve that problem by compacting solid waste before it's hauled, thus saving on transportation costs and wear and tear on route trucks, Sheets said.

"I don't see too many transfer stations except in some of the larger communities," he said. "One of the biggest criticisms I hear from smaller communities is the distance they have to drive to landfills."

But critics of Cape Girardeau's transfer station say it wasn't adequately designed to handle the volume of trash that's being sent through the facility daily.

Doug Kaminskey, the city's environmental services coordinator, said the transfer station was designed to handle 40-50 tons of waste daily, but daily volume now averages 90-100 tons.

The overuse has resulted in breakdowns, which has forced the city to use nearly depleted space in the city landfill. Kaminskey said that if the landfill were to continue operating "full-scale," it would reach capacity within four or five months.

Recent modifications at the transfer station and the addition of a second compactor this year will cost about $180,000. The city tried to offset some of those costs by increasing transfer station tipping fees from $22.50 to $25 per ton.

Stoverink said the improvements are needed to ensure a smooth flow of materials through the facility. He said some of the problems at the facility are attributable to the fact that it was never designed to be a long-term alternative to local waste disposal.

"The transfer station was looked at as an interim method of disposal, which had to be done because the landfill was full. As it's turned out, the transfer station has been used more," he said. "We get criticized for using the transfer station too much, and that's legitimate criticism to a certain extent.

"But at the time the decision was made, there was still a lot of hope that the city could go into an incineration project, perhaps jointly with the (Southeast Missouri Regional) Port or Lone Star. At the time, a co-generation system was being seriously looked at."

Stoverink said a new, district landfill might not eliminate the need for the transfer station. Even if a landfill were situated near the city, the transfer station would remain useful to compact waste and conserve landfill space, he said.

"It's certainly debatable at that point. We would want to take a close look at that," he said. "But there are advantages of keeping the transfer station operating anyway."

Stoverink said the only thing that would preclude the need for the transfer station would be if trash incineration ever became feasible. But he said that's not likely to occur soon.

"That's several years down the road," he said. "Even a regional landfill is not something that's going to happen soon, if ever, simply because of the difficulty of siting a landfill."