City looks south for garbage fix

When Crook County's five entities came together in 2018 to tackle the ongoing garbage problem, one of the options thrown into the mix was to team up with Weston County and make use of its already-approved solid waste district.

It was received as a potential win-win even then, but Weston County Solid Waste District (WCSWD) had only just begun the process of finding acreage for its landfill, let alone building it.

Four years and numerous attempts to find an answer later, and with Sundance residents beginning to express concern over garbage rates, it looks like that option has circled back around. According to Council Member Joe Wilson, it appears the pending new landfill may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

"All signs are pointing to things getting better than they are now," he says. "We've just got to get it done and in place and figure out all the extra pieces to make it make the most sense and be the most economically feasible – for the town, and for the residents."

Finding the Answer

When Wilson ran for a seat on the city council, it wasn't to solve the garbage problem. His tenure happened to coincide with the realization that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) push to switch out local landfills for transfer stations might have long-lasting impacts on the city budget.

Along the way, it has become his personal mission to find a financially feasible solution that would keep garbage rates as low as possible for city residents by finding the lowest available costs for the city. Wilson has investigated a multitude of possibilities on his unexpected journey to becoming Sundance's foremost expert on the economics of garbage disposal.

"You've got to look further than the end of your nose on all this stuff," he says. "Ultimately, my goal is to figure out how to reduce our costs."

Wilson has been in regular contact with WCSWD and attended their most recent meeting last week. At that time, he heard that the district has received a letter from DEQ approving its chosen site and has prepared the preliminary drawings for the landfill.

"They're getting a heck of a lot closer. They're kind of in [a] holding pattern," Wilson says.

"Basically, there's some money trickling down out of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds."

WCSWD has been told to wait to submit its application until the details of the ARPA funds are finalized.

"Everything right now is tied up in what this money is going to do to help our communities but nobody has any idea what the numbers are on it," he says.

WCSWD has been great to work with, Wilson says, and he is happy to continue doing so to ultimately create an arrangement through which Sundance could haul its garbage to their pit.

Reducing the city's costs for garbage – and, through this, keeping costs as low as possible for citizens – will mean cutting two specific expenditures: transportation of the garbage and the tipping fee at its destination. Weston County is relatively close, which speaks to the first half of the equation.

"The rates they're hoping they can do, they will easily be the lowest rates in the region, without question," Wilson says of the second half.

It's a win-win situation for WCSWD and Sundance, Wilson explains, because scale is important for a solid waste district to be profitable.

"They want our garbage. The more tonnage they take in, the more they can lower that tipping fee and the better the price is going to be per ton," he says. That benefits members of the district as much as it does Sundance rate payers.

At this time, completion of the Weston County landfill is looking likely some time in 2023 or 2024, Wilson says. ARPA funding may reduce some of the financial burden for WCSWD, but moving forward is not dependent on receiving those funds.

Wilson expects to hear more concrete numbers from the district within the next few months.

A Countywide Problem

The situation has become more urgent, Wilson acknowledges, now that the Town of Moorcroft may have thrown in the towel on keeping the last landfill in Crook County open. On hearing that the State Lands and Investments Board had turned down its application for a new pit, the Moorcroft Council last week moved to approve resubmitting the application, but also began preparing for the probable closure of the landfill.

"Four years ago, I stood hard on keeping the landfill and making sure we were going to keep it for the town, but I don't know that it's a viable option any more," said Mayor Ben Glenn as the decision was made. "If we can't get the support at the county level, from the commissioners, then Crook County is going to lose its only landfill."

Wilson says he hasn't yet had a chance to talk with Moorcroft's council members about their plans. Since the conversation about garbage began, Sundance and Moorcroft have been allied in a joint desire to find a solution that would be beneficial for the whole county.

The remaining Crook County entities were less inclined towards a countywide solution because their own situations were less dire but, says Wilson, that doesn't mean Sundance's solution can't be of use to everyone in the end, with the city's transfer station acting as a hub for other communities.

"I personally would like to see all of us get along and all of us work together on everything," he says.

"They might not seem the same bleak future that I do, but if we could get priced into Weston County where our transfer station looks like a better option than going across the state line, I think that would be awesome. I'd like to keep as much revenue within the State of Wyoming as possible."

Recycling Program

Another part of the garbage equation is recycling, which has been causing Sundance headaches for some time. Wilson believes he may have found a way to improve matters on this end, too.

"There's some money out there to help basically make recycling more affordable for the communities that have it. As far as it is right now, they don't know how much, they don't know what the match is going to be, it sounds like it's all up in the air," Wilson says.

"What we're looking at doing is putting forward for some equipment that we would like to have at the landfill that would reduce how often we have to go to Rapid City, or wherever we end up going."

Taking recyclables to Rapid City is the best option the city has found so far, so it's likely this will continue to be the destination.

"We're looking at balers and grinders and trying to change it from where we're going weekly to where we go once every couple of months," he says.

"We'd still have the weekly pick-ups and everything, but we wouldn't have to make that trip to Rapid every week like we are right now, which would be pretty huge."

To utilize the baler would mean someone in Sundance would likely to need to sort the bags of recycling after they are collected. If Sundance isn't sending the right items to Rapid and they are turned down, Wilson explains, "We're going to end up putting it in the landfill and if we're trying to pull things out of the garbage stream and they end up going back into it, it's counter-productive."

The city needs to figure out how to manage such a set-up, he continues. Wilson and Public Works Director Mac Erickson are planning to make a visit to the Rapid facility to see in more detail how it works and what would be needed at the Sundance end.

Decisions cannot be made, however, until it becomes clear how much money is potentially available through the ARPA funds and how much there is in the city budget for a match.