At the beginning of a lengthy work session Tuesday, the Blue Earth County Board of Commissioners began a discussion on the future of waste management in the county.
The county’s current plan to keep waste out of Ponderosa Landfill, allowing for Xcel Energy to burn garbage for fuel in a process that results in Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), soon will hit a speed bump; Xcel’s lease ends in 2027. With a potential change on the horizon, county staff presented options to commissioners.
Taylor Piotter, Blue Earth County’s waste and recycling planner, laid out a vision that would see the county complete one of three projects. The first, own an RDF plant and contract with a third party to operate it; the second, own and operate an RDF plant; and the third, contract with a third party to both own and operate a plant.
The benefits of the third plan include the county not having to pay as much to build a plant, since the company owning the building would be on the hook for most of that cost. However, the downside is that the county would have far less say in where the garbage goes or what happens at the plant, and that was a sticking point for the board and county.
“As a department having more control over the waste and where it’s going is incredibly important to us, especially as the owners of a landfill,” said Michael Stalberger, the county’s property and environmental resource director. “Having more control of (waste) at the county level, and making sure that we’re directing it higher up that higher as Taylor is describing is a really important key.”
The hierarchy, as presented in a slide by Piotter, shows that the county’s main hope is that residents find a way to either reduce their waste, reuse things instead of throwing them out or recycle. However, if waste has to be created, the county’s first priority would be to turn it into fuel.
One of the downsides to owning and operating a plant like this would be the dumping fee involved. Currently, the dumping fee for Ponderosa Landfill is around $75 per ton. At an RDF facility on the same site, it’d be almost twice that amount. It’s a cost that wouldn’t impact residents much, but would see a big impact on commercial haulers.
The main goal of the talks on Tuesday was to help align staff and board priorities.
Coming out of the meeting, county staff felt confident it was the county’s hope to have an RDF facility by Ponderosa, and to help move waste up the aforementioned hierarchy.
As this discussion happened in a work session, no official designation or ordinance was made. Talks will continue at future work sessions.