Unified Disposal Board plans to combat landfill concerns

The Unified Disposal Board that oversees operation of the tri-county landfill east of Havre is taking action to reduce the amount of trash blowing out of the landfill.

The board discussed plans to add additional fencing and more employees to reduce the problem, which members said a couple of local residents have complained about this year.

Residents along back roads to the landfill said in April 2018 that they were noticing a large amount of garbage by their roads and in their fields.

Members of the board and Hill County Planner Amy Ferguson said the problem likely is coming from different sources — as well as trash blowing out of the landfill, people don’t always secure their trash when they are taking it to the landfill and it blows out of their vehicles.

Landfill manager Brad Tommerup said he is looking to bring on an additional full-time worker to help clean up the garbage but there is only one at the moment.

“We’re trying to find another, but we also have, we got the band kids from the high school. We’re going to donate them $2,000. ... They’re gonna come out this Saturday at 9 o’clock, and they’re going to do all those fields outside of the fence of the landfill, they’re going to bring about 60 people,” Tommerup said. “So they should, they should have that knocked out in no time.”

The board also discussed plans to repair some fencing intended to trap trash blown by the wind and also to add more fencing.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said additional fencing will span “when you take the road from (U.S.) Highway 2 and you go south into the landfill. It will be the last half mile. It’ll be ... on the west side of the road.”

Hill County Planner Amy Ferguson, who is married to Havre Daily News Publisher George Ferguson, said in an interview after the meeting that a section of land at the landfill has never had any fencing.

However, fencing also collapsed due to strong winds.

“The area she spoke about, that is correct. But we did have high winds take down our big fence (several years ago) and the same fencing company that’s going to put up the new fence came in and put that fence up and reinforced it,” Peterson said.

“That’s when we talk about garbage getting on the fence and creates a solid wall. ... Then (wind) has more leverage to blow the fence down,” Peterson said.

Peterson said the landfill personnel try to make sure loads are covered — people can be fined if they don’t cover them — but it hasn’t helped yet.

“We try, we notify people and they just don’t cover their loads. And it isn’t just around the landfill. Wherever they originate from, they go to the landfill. where a lot of the garbage is scattered.”

Peterson went on to say that wind plays a role and inherent problems exist which occur as landfill “cells,” the section being filled with trash, grow.

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t some (trash) coming from the landfill. We have high winds in Montana, we can’t always get it all covered immediately. … Also, the landfill has developed several cells. You fill a cell and it gets higher and higher and higher until we get it domed and finished. … We have tried different methods. And it’s been successful to a degree, but it’s not perfect.” Peterson said.

Peterson said the new fencing won’t fully solve the problem but it will help. He said the new fencing will be higher but not as high as the fencing right next to the landfill. He added that as garbage continues to pile up, wind is going to have more opportunity to push against the fence, requiring maintenance.

Ferguson said during the meeting partial fault is due to people who still do not secure their trash and it’s not just the fault of the landfill.

“It’s really hard to tell what comes from the landfill (and) what comes from people driving on the highway, but because it’s been a little bit bigger issue these past month or so we just figured we’d get on top of it,” Ferguson said.

“The new fence I think will help a lot because it’s totally understandable that these people always have plastic bags and you know, foam and whatever else in their yards. I wouldn’t want it either. It’s hard on the days when it blows 50 miles an hour. What do you do? It’s unstoppable almost,” she added.

Another item on Wednesday’s agenda was discussion of a possible ban on stores in the county using plastic bags. Peterson said this morning that this is nothing more than a topic of discussion at this point.

“That would mean all stores and the reason the big box stores were mentioned, the city wanted to kind of do that a number of years ago, but because of the box stores, the Walmart and the Kmart, at that time, it was on the west end of Havre, they would have an unfair advantage because they could still use plastic bags,” Peterson said.

“We need to reach out to (Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods) in town to see how it might impact them and also. … I’ve spoken to North 40. … Walmart, there was a Facebook page that said they were going to no plastic bags. I believe that was some other Walmart store but if they do it with one, they’re probably looking at doing it with more,” Peterson added.

The Wal-Mart corporate media contact could not be reached in time for comment prior to publication.

Gary & Leo’s offers people the opportunity to use re-usable bags or use paper bags instead of plastic bags at their purchases.

Members of the board also discussed how people can reduce the problem by tying knots in plastic bags before throwing them away, which lessens the chance they will be blown away by the wind.

Peterson said he hopes to revisit the plastic bag issue at the next board meeting in about three months.

It has not been scheduled, but we hold quarterly meetings, or try to. There’s other stuff that comes up. … We’ll have a meeting sooner than that, might be a budget meeting, but that might be the only thing discussed at that meeting is the budget,” Peterson said.