REGIONAL LANDFILL STUDIED; SOLID WASTE DISTRICT REVIEWS ITS OPTIONS

PERRYVILLE -- With the number of landfills in Missouri dwindling and the volume of solid waste regulations flourishing, officials are lending widespread credence to the concept of regional solid waste management.

At the state's bidding, solid waste management districts last year were formed throughout the state.

This week, officials in the seven-county Southeast Missouri district will have an opportunity to express their preference regarding a regional landfill.

Tim Morgan, solid waste management planner for the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in Perryville, said the commission is sending surveys to members of the solid waste district.

"We want to determine what type of facility they would like to see proposed, whether it be regionally, individually owned, or whatever," Morgan said. "That will come out in about a week, and at that time we'll tailor our planning toward the preferred option they give us."

The regional planning commission was hired to draft the district's waste management plan. Morgan said specific parts of that plan likely will emerge within a month.

Though it's not the only solid waste issue the district faces, landfill space is a priority.

Morgan said the district now has six landfills, two of which will close in October and two that might.

Also, recycling and transfer station operations could be combined to more efficiently handle waste, he said. Morgan said there are benefits to the regional concept.

"The most obvious would be the pooling of financial sources," he said. "Recycling, unfortunately, costs rather than pays at the current time.

"But it's much easier for the economies of scale when you approach recycling and this whole new idea of solid waste management on a regional basis, especially in the heavily rural areas."

In the mid-1970s, Missouri had about 400 landfills. But by 1989, that number had dwindled to 77. Within the next few months, there will be barely 50.

With the enactment of new, more stringent regulations, officials across the state are seeking new ways to handle trash.

A new federal regulation, Sub-Section D, takes effect Oct. 9. Unless the state of Missouri becomes an approved state to enforce solid waste laws, the new federal law would ban landfills in most of the state.

Morgan said the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, after some initial resistance, has applied to become an approved state.

"What they had to do was amend the state solid waste laws to comply with those new regulations," he said. "They have applied, but have not received any ruling on it."

A ruling is expected to come prior to the Oct. 9 deadline. Even as an approved state, Missouri still will have to comply with the law.

"It doesn't nullify the regulations, but it sometimes eases the restrictions under various topics," Morgan said.

Regardless, meeting the stringent requirements will be expensive, particularly in Southeast Missouri, where all the land is considered either in a seismic zone, susceptible to earthquakes, or is Karst topography, subject to sink holes, or both.

Landfills here will be required to install liners and a system to pump and treat water from the landfill. They also will have to monitor for methane gas and wells for contaminated water near the landfill.

In short, the days of local landfills probably are over, replaced by large, regionally owned landfills.

Some cities, like Cape Girardeau, and counties have invested in a transfer station to handle solid waste.

With this system, local trash haulers take the waste to a central site, where it is compacted and loaded into larger trailers for transporting to a landfill.

Morgan said a regional transfer station concept likely would include several transfer stations scattered throughout the district.

Those issues will be addressed in the district's waste management plan, he said. In the past two years, the state has granted the district $90,000 for the plan.

Also, the Missouri General Assembly last month approved a bill that would provide up to $20,000 annually for administrative costs in each district.

"That bill hasn't been signed by the governor," said Morgan, "but he's expected to sign it for fiscal year 1994."