STUDY ESTIMATES REGIONAL LANDFILL AT $6 MILLION

A regional landfill for Southeast Missouri would cost $4 million to $6 million to develop and up to $2 million annually to operate, according to a recent study.

Tom Tucker, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, developed the study for the Region 8 Solid Waste Management District.

The study assumes the regional landfill will serve about 176,000 people in the region, which includes the counties of Cape Girardeau, Perry, Bollinger, Ste. Genevieve, Madison, Iron, and St. Francois.

The study assumed that 145,000 tons of waste would be generated in the region annually, or about 400 tons daily.

By reducing the amount of material going into the landfill by 40 percent through recycling, the study says the total tons per day going into the landfill would be reduced to 250 to 300 tons.

The study estimates the tipping fee for a regional landfill could range as low as $28.47 per ton to as high as $39.40 per ton.

The monthly cost of a publicly-owned landfill per household in the Region 8 District could range from a low of $2.87 to a high of $4.02. The figures do not include the cost of collecting and transporting solid waste from each municipality or county to the regional landfill.

A 200-acre landfill, plus another 100 acres that would act as a buffer around the site, would be excavated to a depth of 30 feet.

The landfill would have an estimated lifespan of 20 to 40 years with an additional 30 years of post-closure monitoring, according to the study. Post-closure costs would total another $10 million to $15 million.

In a memo that accompanied the study, Tucker told the committee the high-low range of cost figures in the study are due to the fact that some things cannot absolutely be known at the present time, and that no specific site for the landfill has been determined.

Tucker said: "Certain assumptions have been made with regards to site size and cost of operation, and certain national level figures have been used in order to assist in pulling together the necessary figures. Obviously, the national figures are probably higher than would be experienced in Southeast Missouri in some instances, but perhaps not higher in other instances.

"Until such time as a full-blown exact site study is done with preliminary engineering, there cannot be exact figures."

Despite the costs, the chairman of the Southeast Missouri Solid Waste Management District, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep, said a publicly-owned regional landfill is the only way citizens can be at least partially insulated from soaring waste disposal rates.

"I'm convinced now that we have to go to a publicly-owned, regional landfill, if for no other reason than to protect our citizens," said Huckstep. "We can operate a regional landfill cheaper than private enterprise. It's the only way we can control costs. Solid waste management is best done on a regional basis because of the more stringent regulations that are going into effect. The smaller municipalities and counties cannot afford to operate a landfill."

Huckstep's comments came during an interview on the impending landfill crisis now facing Southeast Missouri.

Under new federal EPA regulations, current landfills in Perry County, Ste. Genevieve County, and the Jackson municipal landfill probably will be closed on Oct. 8 because they apparently do not meet the new EPA guidelines for landfills.

If that happens, there would only be a few landfills still operating in Southeast Missouri, and they are in Stoddard and Butler counties. They are privately-owned by one company, and Huckstep said the lack of competition would mean there would be no control on how high the rates could go.

"What we have here is a real can of worms," he said. "We're under the gun to come up with something by the Oct. 8 deadline. After our Sept. 8 meeting, I'm hoping we'll have the answers to a lot of the questions we've been asking, such as, What kind of authority does the regional committee and district really have? If we decide to go with a regional landfill, does every political entity in the region have to vote on the proposal?

"We also need to know if the district has the authority to tax and issue bonds. Of course, the big problem with taxes is a lot of the smaller political subdivisions such as towns and the smaller counties are for all practical purposes broke. They barely have enough money right now to provide the basic services for their people. Where are they going to come up with all the money needed to pay for all of this so we can comply with the EPA regulations?" he asked.

The regional waste management district and committee were created and charged with preparing a federal- and state-approved plan for waste management in the district by December, and to come up with a plan for regional landfills.

"The plan is moving along and should be ready for the committee as a whole to consider this fall," Huckstep reported. "But the landfill thing is a separate issue entirely; it's come in through the back door and blindsided us.

"We've all known about the Oct. 8 deadline, but I'm not sure that all of us actually knew that the landfills (in Ste. Genevieve, Perryville, and Jackson) would not meet the new federal EPA regulations. We (the committee) were assuming these landfills would be allowed to remain open after Oct. 8.

"This was based on what we perceived the new regulations were. But what we perceived and what the EPA and the DNR perceived is obviously not the same. When the DNR and the EPA indicated all of these landfills would be unacceptable after Oct. 8, it really put us in a tight bind.

"I find it hard to believe that the Jackson landfill is not acceptable to the EPA," Huckstep said. "The Jackson people told us they were led to believe their landfill was in full compliance with the new EPA regulations. This is what has really got us scratching. We've had to change horses in the middle of the stream because of the landfill crisis. Instead of concentrating our efforts on getting our waste management plan ready for submission, we now have to come up with some kind of a solution to the impending closure of these landfills."

Huckstep said a major problem the committee faces is getting some straight answers from federal EPA and state DNR officials. "No one seems to be able to give us specific answers to the specific questions we've been asking," he said.

Huckstep emphasized he does not oppose what the new regulations are trying to do. "We know its coming, (waste management and recycling) and we accept it, but we have to have some time. Right now its total confusion," he said.

"Not only do we have to get our plan ready and resolve this landfill problem, but we've also got to come up with a recycling program for the counties and towns that are not now recycling their waste in order to reduce by 40 percent the amount of bulk waste coming into a regional landfill.

"At the same time we're going to have to discuss setting up solid waste transfer stations throughout the region, and decide how the solid waste from the transfer stations will be transported to the regional landfill, and who's going to do it.

"I'm really hoping that we can get a six-month extension on this Oct. 8 deadline so we can sort some of this out and try to get something in place by then," said Huckstep. "We're desperately trying to comply with the new regulations but we need more time."