Not without representation

The meeting of the Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District (UPRSWDD) at 7 p.m. on Oct. 3 at the Saratoga Town Hall marked the first meeting of recently approved board member Schelby Merrill, who was appointed by the Town of Encampment to represent them on the board.

Merrill, who was in attendance at the Sept. 5 meeting at the Encampment/Riverside Branch Library, replaces former board member Lloyd Buford after he had completed his six year term on the board.

One of the first things the board addressed was a piece of correspondence from Douglas and Jennifer Duplisea, who were in attendance. The letter had been both emailed to the UPRSWDD and hand delivered, as have all previous letters, and requested a response from the board regarding their inquiries into the board budgets in a letter delivered at the Sept. 5 meeting.

Board chairman Randy Raymer read the letter aloud and noted that the Dupliseas had also sent a copy of the letter to their attorney, Paul Hickey, Esq. Upon D. Duplisea confirming that Hickey was, in fact, their attorney, Raymer informed the couple that the board would not engage in any further public discussion without representation.

“As you know, I’ve had a tragedy at my work company, we’ve been very busy. I got distracted from your response and I’m working on that. At this point, now that you have brought your attorney, Paul Hickey, into the discussion, we will no longer have any public discussions with you without representation on our part,” said Raymer.

The board chairman then entertained a motion to that effect, with Leroy Stephenson making the motion and Sue Jones seconding the motion. The board then voted unanimously to no longer engage in any further public talks with the Dupliseas without their own representation. Jones also moved that the UPRSWDD enter into executive session near the end of the meeting. This was also approved unanimously.

The executive session would last a total of 13 minutes near the end of the meeting and ended with a report of no action taken.

The major point of discussion, brought forth by Merrill, was the ongoing issue of dead pits at municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. The dead pit at the Saratoga Landfill was originally slated for closure by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality as of Dec. 31, 2018.

“I just am curious what the status (of the dead pit) is because I sent out the email requesting that we write a letter to the DEQ because that’s all they needed from us to extend the permit, as long as we can say the actual landfill itself can hold enough waste for the next five months,” said Merrill.

Raymer defered to Craig Kopasz, of Engineering Associates, to answer Merrill’s question. Kopasz stated that he had spoken with Susan Engles of the DEQ about extending the closure date of the dead pit and that she had informed him an extension of the MSW would be possible if there were still “airspace” available to receive dead animals. Kopasz had also asked about what direction the UPRSWDD could take in regards to animal carcasses.

“I spoke with her (Engles) about what the best direction that the state can give us. She said composting for whole animals, liquids you can mix them with sawdust and compost it as well, or incineration,” said Kopasz.

Purchasing and operating a diesel operated incinerator, however, is very costly according to Kopasz and he believed that the next best course for the district was to look into composting.

“Composting is the next best option … we can do it on the transfer station location. Part of that, there’s a level pad, like a concrete pad or milling pad, that can drain and then … build a bed of wood chips and then you can put the whole dead animals and put them on top and let them sit there for a while,” Kopasz said.

Composting animal carasses, however, would require more work for Ron Munson, site operator for both Encampment and Saratoga, as well as an amendment to his current contract with the solid waste district. Jones brought up the issue of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in regards to composting.

“If we go down the road to incineration, it doesn’t matter. If you go down the road for composting, you’ll have to have separate composting areas: one for domestic and then one for wild game. The domestic we can use as a soil amendment around the landfill. The wild game, the stance they’ve taken on that in the past is we have to take that to a trash truck and haul it,” said Kopasz.

While the domestic compost could either be used in the soil around the landfill, or small amounts placed in the MSW stream, compost from wildgame that could not be proven to be free of CWD would have to be hauled to a lined facility.

After the discussion, the board agreed that a letter be written to the DEQ requesting an extension of their permit to accept dead animals until the end of February, beginning of March. It is still unclear at the time, however, what the exact future of dead pits will be as debate continues on the state level.

The next scheduled meeting of the UPRSWDD will be at 7 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the Encampment/Riverside Branch Library.