Leaking landfills threaten state’s ability to handle its waste

In Fremont County, the solid waste district calls it a crisis. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality prefers to say "problem" or "challenge." The choice of word seems to be dictated by who is footing the bill, but regardless of whether you view it as a crisis or challenge, Wyoming is facing growing problems with the way it disposes of its garbage.

It’s hard to imagine Wyoming, with its miles of wide-open spaces and low population, having a solid waste disposal problem. There seems to be plenty of unoccupied land to dump on. And 30 years ago, that was true. In those days, most people in the state either got rid of their garbage on the "back 40" or they drove out an old two-track on public land, emptied out their trash, and set it ablaze. But then in 1979, with growing awareness of the need to protect public health and environmental quality from unsanitary and reckless waste disposal techniques, the Wyoming legislature established more stringent laws for waste disposal and free-form dumping became illegal.

Today’s pending disposal problem can be traced to a number of factors. First and foremost is the amount of waste being generated. Wyoming residents produce almost twice as much garbage per person per day as the national average. (Approximately nine pounds per person as opposed to 5.3 pounds elsewhere.) In addition, changing regulations and new monitoring standards have affected the way landfills are managed.

The Problem
As the Wyoming DEQ began to monitor Wyoming’s landfills more carefully in the 1990s, it discovered that 13 of the state’s 53 operating landfills and approximately eight of its 77 closed landfills were leaking pollutants such as vanadium, mercury, tin, and vinyl chloride into underlying aquifers. (Note: The number of leaking closed landfills may exceed eight since many of these sites are not currently monitored.)

In Fremont County, groundwater contamination—coupled with the discovery of an important archeological site in the middle of the Riverton landfill, and a conflict with a power line right-of-way in Lander—meant that the district went from an estimated 50 years of landfill life to less than five in a matter of weeks. Since it takes up to ten years to permit and construct a new landfill, Fremont County may run out of landfill space if something is not done quickly.

Cheyenne and Casper are also facing impending limits on how long they can continue to run their operations as they have in the past, while the town of Guernsey has been forced to close its dump because it could not afford to assess—let alone cleanup—its groundwater problem. "The cost of remediation at the affected sites is high," says Bob Doctor, the DEQ’s program manager for solid waste permitting and corrective action. "We estimate it could cost between $500,000 to 2.5 million per site. You do the math. We’re talking a lot of money."

Most landfills in the state do not charge dumping fees, rather services are paid for by mill-levies on local property and mineral taxes. This indirect method of financing means that there are no incentives to reduce or recycle waste. In addition, the funding does not have any direct relationship to the actual cost of doing business, leaving many solid waste districts without any resources to pay for the cost of remediation. "Many of the little municipalities around the state are having a hard time coming up with enough money to figure out the extent of their problem, let alone how to fix it," Doctor says.

Reducing the amount of waste going into Wyoming's landfills through recycling is one way the state hopes to deal with its growing solid waste disposal problem

Regionalization, Recycling, Remediation
As part of a multi-pronged effort to address major waste disposal problems in Wyoming, the DEQ, in conjunction with Governor Freudenthal, has set up a citizen’s advisory group that will explore new ways to handle garbage in the state. WOC’s Michele Barlow is a member of the group. The group’s goals, according to Dave Finley, the administrator of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Division, who spoke at a solid waste meeting in Lander in February, can be summed up with three Rs: Regionalization, Recycling and Remediation. Ironically, one of the more conventional uses for the three Rs is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, a mantra that might have helped the state avoid its current situation had it been followed more closely in the past.

Finley believes that regionalization is critical, spreading costs beyond municipalities so citizens in rural areas will still have access to affordable waste disposal services. Currently, the DEQ is looking to states like Idaho, where regional landfills have proven to be very cost effective, as models on how to consolidate Wyoming’s waste disposal efforts. A representative from Idaho made a presentation at a March 15 citizen’s advisory group meeting.

Recycling is also a priority in order to reduce the amount of waste going into state landfills. Wyoming’s recycling rates are much lower than the national average. States such as Oregon boast that as much as 46 percent of its waste stream is recycled. The national average is 26.7 percent. Biocycle magazine estimates that Wyoming recycled only 1.7 percent of the waste it generated in 2003. Doctor thinks Biocycle’s number is low. He says he would guess three to five percent of the waste stream is recycled in the state. Regardless, the numbers are not up to par. The recycling rates are low for various reasons, according to Doctor. Inconvenience, lack of education, the cost and distance of transportation, the fact that it is cheap to dump, and the state’s low, dispersed population all contribute.

Fremont County is one district currently exploring options for dealing with what its solid waste disposal board of directors frankly call a crisis. Recycling has been around for more than ten years in the county. It started as a grassroots effort with WOC and an all-volunteer group, Lander Recycles, providing support and leadership to get the program off the ground. Eventually recycling grew to the point where it was handed over to Community Entry Services to operate. When the county became aware of the looming space shortage in its landfills two years ago, the solid waste disposal district launched an extensive educational campaign to try to increase recycling rates.

Ads were run in both the print and broadcast media, bins were placed in more convenient places around the communities, and a commercial cardboard pickup program was started. In the two years since this campaign was first implemented, recycling has grown by 30 percent. But it can’t grow anymore without an influx of funds, which the county does not have. Other parts of the state face similar challenges with their recycling programs. "We are trying to find ways to concentrate our solid waste facilities both for traditional garbage and recycling," Doctor says. "This way we can all share the cost."

Reuso, the recycling wizard, was created as part of an educational campaign to encourage recycling in Fremont County

Protecting groundwater
The final "R" in the DEQ’s plan involves remediation or the cleanup of landfills where groundwater contamination is currently occurring. Wyoming’s statutes state that groundwater quality in Wyoming cannot be degraded by any activity. This water—considered a precious resource because of its scarcity—is protected for both its intended use and for any use for which it may be suitable. DEQ’s Northwest District Engineering Supervisor in the Water Quality Division, Jeff Hermansky, said in a phone interview that groundwater can be cleaned if it becomes contaminated, but the process is very expensive and time consuming. "The expenditure for remediation can literally be 100 times more than it is for prevention," Hermansky says. "It’s much cheaper to spend money up front protecting groundwater than it is to spend money cleaning it up."

The DEQ’s position on this is clear, despite some grumblings by local officials that the regulations are overly stringent. At the February meeting in Lander, Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson said he thought some "common sense" needed to be applied when determining how degraded water can be. He added that much of the groundwater affected by Fremont County landfills is already unfit for human consumption.

"Who knows when we may need that water," DEQ’s Doctor says. "It’s wrong to be sure that because an aquifer is not used now it won’t be in the future. "Eight-two percent of Wyoming’s pubic water supplies rely solely on groundwater," he adds. "There are more than 50,000 permitted domestic wells. Much of that water is technically unsuitable for human consumption, but it is treated and used all the time. That’s the reason arguing that nobody is using the water now doesn’t work."

The Citizen’s Advisory Group hopes to come out with its recommendations on what to do about the state’s landfill problem by July 2004.