Landfill board approves preliminary design

The Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District (Landfill Board) is one step closer to having a transfer station, but they still have a long way to go.

The Landfill Board met in Encampment on Jan. 7, 2015, and approved the preliminary drawings presented by Craig Kopasz, Civil Engineer (PE) with PMPC.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has several requirements for the Landfill Board to meet in the development of the transfer station.

Board chairmanRandy Raymer explained to the audience that while the transfer station is located inside the 40-acre landfill, it cannot be built on an area that has been used for previous solid waste disposal. The transfer station is required to be located in a five-acre area that is fenced in order to meet a low hazard, low volume permit.

Kopasz had to locate a five-acre area that had not been used for solid waste to insure it met all of DEQ's requirements.

Additionally, the transfer station will be situated facing eastward to protect from wind.

Three overhead doors allow the user to drive through, rather than backing in, the facility.

Once solid waste is disposed, a front-end loader is used to load the waste into a specialized trailer.

Kopasz and Raymer explained there will be several advantages to the transfer station, including a larger recycling area. Another advantage is the landfill attendant will be centrally located in the building.

A situation that has not been resolved with the new transfer station is animal by-products will no longer be accepted for burial. The animal by-products would be considered municipal solid waste.

In the past, a pit has been available for animal carcasses and game by-products.

With the transfer station, carcasses and game by-products would be treated as solid waste and disposed of in the transfer station.

Lloyd Buford, a Landfill Board member and owner of Encampment River Processing, does not believe disposing of animal carcasses as solid waste is an acceptable solution.

Buford said he processes up to 1,500 game animals per month during hunting season and believes the smell of the by-product may overwhelm the transfer station and the receiving station.

It is estimated by Raymer, that the trailer will be taken to a designated landfill two times a week.

The Landfill Board has three choices of approved lined facilities to send their solid waste. These options include Rock Springs, Casper or Laramie. The board has not made a decision yet on where to send the Valley's solid waste.

First they have to re-apply for the State Land and Investment Board (SLIB) grant that was denied last year because of a technicality.

Raymer said the loan was denied last year because the Landfill Board did not use the GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles) accounting system, but was using the municipal system.

When they convene next week, the 2015 Wyoming State Legislature will consider a bill before them that would allow municipal accounting.

Raymer explained another bill is going before the legislature to define the loan/grant language. Raymer said the way the definition stands now does not allow for the original intent of the SLIB grant.

In the meantime, the Landfill Board is using the GAAP accounting system.

The deadline to have the transfer station in place was Jan. 1, 2015, but the Landfill District is not the only one to have missed the deadline. "Most of the landfills in the state have missed or passed this deadline," Raymer said.

The transfer station may include a scale to insure the semi-trailer is filled to maximum capacity which is around 24 to 25 tons.

If everything goes as planned, the legislation will pass, the SLIB grant will be approved and the transfer station can go out for bid in June, 2015.