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HomeMy Public PortalAboutValley County, Idaho: Refuse disposaln Ws" /o/i 4/9Z- Valley landfill stays open as permits sought BY SHARI HAMBLETON The star -News The Valley County landfill — originally scheduled to be closed Fri- day — will remain open indefinitely until a conditional use permit can be attained for the new transfer station, Valley County Engineer Les Ankenman said. The permit application — submit- ted by Valley County in September — was reviewed by Central District Health Department, Ankenman said. "They asked for more information and clarification of certain points" before they will issue the permit. A six-month extension of the fed- eral regulations which forced the clo- sure of the landfill gave Valley County a reprieve from the initial Oct. 8 dead- line. But Ankenman said he expects the conditional use permit to be issued soon — possibly a week or two — after which the landfill will be closed and operation of the transfer site will begin. He said Central District Health officials asked the county to clarify the following items: • An approval of the fire plan for the transfer station site by Donnelly Rural Fire District Chief Terry Gestrin. • Details of the septic tank and drain field area, which also requires a permit from Central District Health Department. • Explanation of the storage and disposal of wood and masonry rubble accumulated at the site. • Explanation of how hazardous materials such as asbestos and medi- cal wastes will be managed and dis- posed of by the county. "With any project of this magni- tude there's going to be some give and take," said Jeff Lappin, senior envi- ronmental health specialist with Cen- tral District Health. "It's a pretty long involved process. These things take time. "It was a good application," Lappin said. "But it's not an automatic rubber stamp. Some of the things that needed to be addressed were just small changes in wording." Gestrin said the transfer station fire plan review and approval process is simple. "All we need to do is go over the fire plan and look at the facility," Gestrin said. "I haven't seen what Central District Health is asking for specifically, but it sounded like they just needed to look at the fire plan and approve it." Another issue which Valley County needs to address, Lappin said, is the handling of dead animals. "We need some sort of disposal plan for dead animals in Valley County," he said. "We may not have a place to put them (after the landfill closes)." Lappin said the controversy over the burial of several head of cattle adjacent to Cascade Reservoir recently led to a discussion about a specific disposal plan for dead animals in the county. The cattle, which were grazing on Boise National Forest allotments, died after drinking water from the reser- voir which contained algae -produced toxins. While the cattle were not buried on land owned by the county, the need to develop a plan for disposal of animal carcasses was spotlighted, Lappin said. As the county prepares for the tran- sition to a transfer station site and transportation of waste to a regional landfill, Ankenman said many of the county's solid waste ordinances are being reviewed, consolidated and "cleaned up so they don't conflict with one another." "Various County ordinances re- garding the storage, handling, and transportation of solid waste have been adopted from time to time," a release issued by Ankenman's office said. "Some of the provisions have not been enforced so they may not be familiar to a number of citizens." Ankenman said the county will soon be enforcing ordinances which, among other things, requires people transporting garbage to cover it, pre- venting roadway litter. "The county employee acting as gate keeper at the transfer station will be observing the failure to comply," Ankenman's release said. "Warnings will be issued initially with stronger enforcement measures following if the practice continues." Other ordinances addressing county solid waste include: • Require the removal of "pu- trescible" waste —garbage that spoils — at least every seven days or more frequently to prevent health hazards, nuisances or pollution. • The use of sanitary containers — garbage cans between 20 to 32 gallon capacity — for residences using solid waste collection services from Lakeshore Disposal. Residential service is intended for collection of ordinary household gar- bage ... and does not include con- struction debris, tree stumps, trunks, large limbs, or logs, vehicle bodies or bulk metals, tires, wheels, batteries, used oil, appliances, furniture, indus- trial or agricultural refuse, hot ashes, animal feces or dead animals. According to the release, the fol- lowing items cannot be collected and transported to the transfer station: Poisons, acids, explosives, toxins or toxic materials, medical wastes, as- bestos, or radioactive materials. For more information about the disposal of specific items, call i akeshore Disposal at 634-7176. Federal rules leave Palley County no place to put trash 'New regulations require closing dump in October. Commissioners say they may have to truck garbage to Canyon County landfill. By Andrew Garber The Idaho Statesman Valley County needs a place to put its trash. The county, home to the re- sort town of McCall, will be re- quired by new federal regula- tions to close its landfill by mid - October. The county's only option is to haul garbage — 21,000 cubic yards annually — about 150 miles to Canyon County's Pickle Butte landfill, Valley County Clerk Lee Heinrich said. That means a lot of truck trips, possibly down winding, two-lane Idaho 55. And Valley County has anoth- er problem: Residents are oppos- ing county efforts to build a transfer station. The building is needed so gar- bage can be dumped, sorted and packed into 44-foot-long semi- trailers for the trip to Canyon County. Every site the county has pro- posed for the station runs into opposition, officials said. "We're going to have to deal with that no matter where we place it," Valley County Com- missioner Carl Kerrick said. Commissioner Tom Olson said the main problem is, "People don't understand the difference between a landfill and a transfer station." Dave Simmons, a McCall builder and environmental ac- tivist, said the main problem is that the County Commission has shut out the public. "If they want to succeed at this, they have to have a open, public process," Simmons said. He called for public hearings on site selection. Kerrick said the public has had ample opportunity to get involved. Regardless of who's right, time is running out. Even if a decision were made today, it would take several months to get the station built, commissioners said. "We're really under the gun if we're going to make tl}is work," Kerrick said. �\,� o John Baker/Special to The Idaho Statesmai Valley County Clerk Lee Heinrich stands by gar- needs to find another place for its garbage by mid bage in the Valley County landfill. The county October, when the landfill is scheduled to close. How county's garbage -hauling plan would work, what it would cost Here are some additional de- tails about Valley County's landfill situation: ■ The Valley County Com- mission has a tentative five-year agreement to haul garbage to the federally certified Canyon County landfill. That landfill is expected to last another 200 years, officials said. ■ The garbage would be. hauled in a 44-foot-long semi- trailer two or three times a week at first. By the end of the five-year contract, daily trips probably would have to be made to ac- commodate McCa11's growth, of- ficials said. The trucks may travel down Idaho 55, a winding, two-lane highway that follows stretches of the North Fork of the Payette River, officials said. ■ The county decided to haul the trash because it couldn't af- ford the $4 million cost of con- structing a new landfill, com- missioners said. The hauling is expected to be a long-term solution to the coun- ty's problem. ■ Hauling the trash is expect- ed to cost $300,000 to $400,000 annually. It currently costs the county $290,000 annually to run the landfill that will be closed. ■ The additional cost of haul- ing garbage will be passed on to customers. The county's garbage fee is expected to increase from $46 to $50 annually, County Clerk Lee Heinrich said. Walley eyes current dump for garbage transfer site BY JAMES L. KINCAID The Star -News Valley County commissioners said Monday they might use an area near the current Valley County land- fill as the site of a trash storage area that would replace the landfill. The commissioners made their comments as they heard concerns from Lake Fork area residents who are unhappy with a proposal to place the solid waste transfer station near Lake Fork Creek. The resi- dents have retained an attorney and have not ruled out legal action to block the proposed site. About 45 people attended the regular commissioners meeting at the Valley County Courthouse in Cascade. "We may be able to locate the site near the current landfill, but we have not given up on the Lake Fork site," Valley County Commission Chairman Tom Olson said. "Allow us to negotiate for the landfill site, but if that does not work, look out." "The Lake Fork area has at least 101 homes within a one mile radius of the proposed site," Billie Walker of Lake Fork said. "There are about 12 homes within a one mile radius of the landfill site. We are very concerned with the site being so close to Lake Fork Creek." Residents of the Lake Fork area on March 8 presented the commis- sioners with a petition signed by about 110 people in protest of the proposed transfer station site. The commissioners agreed to postpone a decision on the Lake Fork site until Mondays meeting to see if the petitioners could find ar alternate site. The current landfill located in the foothills east Donnelly. cerned about a water table because wells are otir only source of water out here." Another co is the condition of Lake Fork o , which would be used to acces the transfer station, Grems said. n addition, the inter- section of the road and Idaho 55 of- fers poor visibility that could lead to accidents, she said. Other concerns expressed at Monday's meeting included blowing trash, foul odors and possible effects on the fishery in Lake Fork Creek. "We sent the commissioners a generic letter because we have not seen specific proposals yet," said Don Anderson, Idaho Department of Fish and Game fisheries manager in McCall. "We would like to see the plans for the site and the transfer station." The F&G is concerned about the possible effects of construction and operation of the transfer station on the stream, Anderson said. The agency also is concerned whether the proposed site is located on a flood plain, whether the stream would be altered and the effects on stream -side "vegetation, he said. "We also want to know how wa- ter leaving the site would be handled and if they will monitor and classify toxic materials," Anderson said. The F&G cannot evaluate the Lake Fork site until its sees the de- sign of the transfer station, Valley County Engineer Les Ankenman said. Twenty-three possible sites have been considered and they will be re- considered, Ankenman said. All of the sites were evaluated on several bases including location, topogra- phy, available power facilities, fish, wildlife and vegetation, water qual- ity and cost estimates, he said. Reconsideration of all the sites, using formerly compiled informa- tion, should be completed in about a week, Ankenman said. It is hoped that construction of the transfer sta- tion can begin early this summer, he said. "We didn't know we could put the transfer station near the landfill until a couple of weeks ago," Olson said. "We favor the landfill site, but will keep our optkons open." "We didn't fin out about the Lake Fork site until two weeks ago," Grems said. "I don't think the commissioners thought ; about a transfer station site until' after the first of the year because they were looking for a dump site." The proposed Lake Fork transfer station site is located about one mile northeast of Lake Fork on county land near an existing county - owned gravel pit. The site of the proposed, en- closed transfer station would be lo- cated on about five acres of land owned by the county. County offi- cials would also like to acquire about 160 acres of privately owned land for a buffer around the enclosed transfer station. The possible site near the current landfill, on land owned by Harold Davis, of McCall, would use about/ four acres for the station site and about 40 acres of buffer area, Ankenman said. The county and Davis have not agreed on a purchase price for the site on a ridge along the west side of the landfill, Olson said. The current landfill east of Donnelly is scheduled to be closed by Oct. 8 of this year. Earlier ef- forts to find a new landfill site in the county have failed. Plans call for the trash to be gathered at transfer station site and then trucked to Pickle Butte near Caldwell. No permit has been sought yet to construct the station at any site, Ankenman said. That application would be made before the Valley County Planning and Zoning Comm ission. There is a 45 day waiting period after the application is made and the first public hearing is held, Steve Millemann, a McCall attorney hired by the Lake Fork group. "These people may appeal, and I am not sure the commissioners can rule on an appeal of their own pro- posal," Millemann said. "It will take time for the appeal and to de- cide who hears the appeal." ,Ldh 14 // y Avoc-a - OL' County starts work on transfer station site CASCADE — Work has started on clearing the construction site of Valley County's garbage transfer station, Valley County Commissioners said Monday. • Commissioner Carl Kerrick said the county has come to a verbal agreement with Harold Davis, who operates the county's landfill, for the sale of 47 acres near the existing landfill to be used for the transfer sta- tion. That agreement hasn't been formalized yet, he said. But with the county facing a September deadline with the U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency to have the landfill closed, he said they've gotten the okay from Davis to begin clearing the site. The county decided to try to build the station on Davis' property af- ter their first location for the station, just east of Lake Fork on property the county already owns, drew fire from Lake Fork -area residents con- cerned about their property values and potential negative impacts on Lake Creek water quality. Davis is selling the property to the county for the transfer station, and either the county or Lakeshore Disposal, which was awarded the con- tract to provide collection services under the new program, will build the station facilities, Kerrick said. In any event, Commissioner Tom Olson said the county will end up owning the transfer station, either through paying for its construction or through a lease -purchase agreement with Lakeshore Disposal owner Tony Totorica, if that company pays for its initial construction. Also a part of the deal is the county's purchase of the right-of-way and the segment of the road on Davis' property that will access the trans- fer station. The road leading to the landfill from Farm -to -Market will also have to be upgraded to handle the semi -tractor truck traffic that will result with the shipment of solid waste to Canyon County. Comparing the cost of the transfer station built on the Davis proper- ty with that of constructing it at the Lake Fork site, Olson said it may cost a bit more for construction. But there will be a savings in what he termed "procedural costs" as the county won't have to go through Valley County's Planning and Zoning Commission for a conditional use permit as would be the case with the Lake Fork site. 7'he i9ctvocate fl ug tf, /q93 Transfer station negotiations hit snag CASCADE — With a couple of minor snags, Valley County Commissioners are close to reach- ing an agreement with Lakeshore Disposal that would have that company's owner Tony Totorica secure the financing for construction of a waste transfer station at the site of the county landfill east of Donnelly. Under the arrangement that the county is seek- ing with Totorica, he would secure about $200,000 in financing to build a covered transfer station and two smaller buildings at the site the county has ac- quired from Harold Davis, current operator of the county's landfill. That landfill must be shutdown by September under new Environmental Protection Agency regu- lations. It has forced the county to seek an alterna- tive method of waste disposal which will include trucking solid waste to Canyon County. Though both sides are close to reaching an agreement on the project, there were still a few stumbling blocks discussed at Monday's meeting of the Valley County Commission. Those snags have to do with the length of the contract the county will enter into with Totorica, whose proposal for hauling and operating the trans- fer station was accepted from among 8 proposals made to the county. Totorica told commissioners that he's been a good operator for the county for the past 10 -years and hopes they consider that and extend the con- tract or otherwise give him some sort of right to match the offer made by another hauler in six years when the contract would expire. The term of the contract outlined in the pro- posal solicited by the county called for a six -year term. Totorica said he knew that when he submit- ted his proposal, but said it's very difficult, if not impossible, for him to obtain financing over that shorter period. Another snag in coming to terms had to do with the amount of financing Totorica would have to obtain. With the county taking care of some of the expense of the estimated $340,000 project through work county employees would do, and through the expenditure of some money the coun- ty already has, the amount of financing needed was determined to be $200,000. Steve Millemann, Totorica's attorney, argued a bit over whether the length of contract outlined in the proposal was necessarily binding as the whole process of negotiation has been a relatively fluid one. 'This wasn't a bid process," he said. Bur' in- missioners said they have the public's interest to look after. "My concern with the longer term is that it makes sense to be able to get together with the pub- lic ... to make sure we're getting the best bang for the buck," Commissioner Carl Kerrick said. That would allow commissioners to review Lakeshore's performance, he said. "I guess we thought six years was a good com- promise, long enough for Tony and frequent enough for us," Kerrick said. Commission Chairman Tom Olson said it wasn't fair to others who submitted proposals based on a six -year contract to re -work things and allow for a 10-year contract. "I appreciate that," Millemann said. "But what you're hearing is real," he said in referring to To- torica's statements about the availability of financ- ing. Totorica told commissioners that the area is growing and will continue to grow, and he needs the ability to grow with it. He said it will be impos- sible for him to finance the purchase of new equip- ment he might need to deal with growth two or three years into the contract and only three or four years remaining. Millemann said he was also concerned about the requirement by the county of a $100,000 sure- ty bond, saying the cost of such a bond has proven to be quite high. Commissioners, Totorica and Millemann agreed to meet again next Monday evening to get an agreement signed so the project can continue to move forward. J /1J )/e .f 9/z3/3 Valley landfill to stop accepting trash after Oct. 8 The Valley County solid waste landfill near Donnelly has been tar- geted for closure Friday, Oct. 8, at 5 p.m., according to the Valley County Solid Waste Department. A new transfer station to handle the county's garbage will open the following day, Oct. 9, at 9 a.m. The Clean Water Act legislation made continued operation of the land- fill "impractical," requiring the county to prove the material in the landfill did not adversely affect the area's ground- water. Valley County Commissioners opted for the construction of a trans- fer station at which solid waste could be collected, sorted and transported to the Pickle Butte landfill located south of Caldwell in Canyon County. Lakeshore Disposal of McCall will operate the transfer station, which is located at the end of Spink Lane, about 600 feet north of the present landfill. The landfill has been the only approved landfill site in the county for the past 17 years, according to the release. Operational cost for the transfer station will be in the form of a flat annual fee of $50 per Valley County household for the 1993-94 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, and a gate fee which has not yet been determined. The gate fee will be designed to reward users for separating their solid waste loads. Higher gate fees will be charged for mixed and contaminated loads, the release said. Items can be separated into the following types: • Household garbage • Wood and materials containing wood fibre • Clean soil and masonry rubble • Whole tires, batteries, etc. • Metals, appliances, etc. Items the transfer station will not accept include: • Hazardous waste (except that considered to be household hazard- ous waste), asbestos, medical waste, liquids in bulk containers, radioactive waste, and lead or oil base paint or containers of paint. A recycling program is currently operating in three sites — Cascade, Donnelly and McCa11 — and a fourth will be operated at the transfer sta- tion, according to the release. Recyclable items include: card- board, newsprint, aluminum, tin, and clear container glass. For more information about either the landfill or the transfer station, call the Valley County Engineer's office at 382-4171, or Lakeshore Disposal at 634-7176. In the 50s you took it to the dump. In the 70s you took it to a landfill. In the 90s you'll take it to Tony... 44,04 It's not ust "The daywhen the garbage truck backs up to the landfill, opens the back door, dumps the garbage and drives away is over." —Tony Totorica Photo by Shari Hambleton Totorica aims to be county's first successful recycler BY SHARI HAMBLETON The star -News Over the past few years, Valley County has experimented with various approaches to recycling in order to find a feasible, long-term plan. Today, Tony Totorica hopes he will be the one who can make recycling work. "The day when the garbage truck backs up to the landfill, opens the back door, dumps the garbage and drives away is over," said Totorica, owner of Lakeshore Disposal in McCall. The '90s is the decade of the environment and you're going to see the garbage being pulled out of the waste stream and separated into recyclable com- modities." County residents have come a long way in their understanding of the necessity of recycling and sophistication of recycling issues over the past few years, according to those who have worked on the issue. But that progress hasn't come easy for those who first did the work locating recycling markets and resources, negotiating transportation routes and rates and privately funding recycling centers in McCall, Donnelly and Cascade. Most fundamental of all was the task of educating the public. "In 1989 we started looking around to see what was going Qn with recycling," said Cindi Lei Brett of McCall. "At that time, the school — with an effort by the teachers and faculty — had a program where they were handling the majority of recy- clable materials; all colors of glass, newspaper, aluminum, cardboard and tin. But the problem was that teachers were having to take their personal time to clean up the area, Le Brett said. "It required a lot of maintenance and the broken glass and mess in the playground area concerned the faculty," she said. So Cindi and Tony Le Brett took over the program, moved the materials off the school grounds and embarked on a venture which resulted in the creation of ECO of McCall, which stood for "Ecology Conscious Only." Cindi Le Brett and others took their vision of a community recycling program to area schools in the form of an educational program, teaching children about recycling, why it was important and how it was accomplished. It worked. "The community was receptive and the volume slowly started to increase," Le Brett said. In the beginning, Le Brett planned to pay for aluminum and precious metals brought to the recycling center. But because of the high cost of transportation to processing centers in Boise, it was difficult just to get the recyclables collected, packaged and transported in an economically enough manner to make a small profit — a goal which Le Brett said was never realized. 1-�P. for /YPpVs - Added to the cost of transportion, she said, was the fact that the market for recyclables was steadily swelling with raw material supplies, driving prices down. Participation on the part of Valley County residents has been driven by a sense of community and environmental responsibility rather than financial return, she said. ECO of McCall continued to loose ground financially. Unable to cover fixed costs like building and equipment leases, Le Brett went first to the city of McCall and then to Valley County commissioners for support. The city gave Le Brett a cool reception, but commissioners were more receptive, offering Le Brett a subsidy to cover fixed costs. "We had worked so long, financing the project out of our own pockets with no profit at all that we just needed something more. We needed salaries," Le Brett said. The decision was made in 1992 to close ECO of McCall, and Le Brett went to work for the county as a recycling consultant, helping Valley County bring recycling under its own umbrella of responsibility. She held that position for about a year. Valley County has faced the same dilemmas Le Brett experi- enced trying to establish an economical recycling program. Those problems have been com- pounded by new federal regulations which ultimately have resulted in the closure of the county's landfill, mak- ing it necessary to transport not only recyclables but also all of the garbage previously disposed of at the site. County commissioners have spent the last year reevaluating the entire solid waste program, said Totorica, whose company has been collecting residential and commercial garbage throughout the county for the past 10 years. "The commissioners told me last year they were reevaluating the whole thing and that they were putting out a request for proposals for the four dif- ferent areas; solid waste collection, operation of a transfer station, recy- cling center and long haul (of solid waste) to a regional landfill," he said. Totorica submitted proposals and was eventually awarded the contract for the entire program. Now its up to him to institute a workable plan for recycling. And he does have a plan. "Recycling is labor intensive," Totorica said. "Every time you handle the material ... every time it's handed off to someone else, it gets more ex- pensive." So Totorica purchased four spe- cially designed compartmental recy- cling trailers which will be placed in various convenient locations around the area. Items taken will be limited to clear glass, newspapers, cardboard, aluminum and tin. After the bins become full, they will be picked up by a lift truck and taken to a recycling center, dumped, the material compressed, bundled and transported to Boise. Much of the structure for what Totorica will be doing can be attrib- uted to the early work of people like Le Brett and others whose efforts have essentially diverted a strong and growing bulk of material away from the county's landfill. While before those attempts were driven by various influences, now the push is to cut down on what must be transported out of the area to the re- gional land fill. That essentially will cut down on the expense of transpor- tation, Totorica said. "We'd much rather get as much of the waste stream as we can in the form of recyclables to centers in Boise and get something back for it than have to transport it to the regional land fill and have to pay for it," he said. Valley landfill closes Friday BY SHARI HAMBLETON The Star -News The Valley County landfill is still set to be closed Friday at 5 p.m. even though U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations which resulted in the closure have been extended until next April. While the EPA extension may give Valley County breath- ing room, Valley County Engineer Les Ankenman said the county still plans to close the landfill on Friday and open its new transfer on Saturday. The closure of the landfill, located in the foothills east of Donnelly, may affect the way county residents handle their solid waste, according to county officials. "The current landfill practice has been to receive a wide variety of mixed waste material, to sort and store it over a long period of time and to bury the rest of the material (in the landfill)," a release from Ankenman's office said. The transfer station, located at the current landfill site, will be operated to process materials and dispose of them in a short time. The materials which cannot be sorted and shipped to recycling markets will be transported to a regional landfill in Canyon County. While household garbage brought to the transfer station will not be charged a fee, there will be a charge for specialty items such as construction debris, appliances, tires and batteries. The fee schedule has not yet been set, but will be designed to encourage separation of garbage loads by charging more for those that are mixed. When established, rates will be published and posted at the transfer station. Residents are encouraged to separate garbage as it is dis- carded, making it easier to load and transport to the transfer station. Items should be separated in the following categories: household gar- bage, wood and materials containing wood fibre, clean masonry rubble and soils, recyclables, whole tires, bulk metals, batteries, and used motor oil. Recyclable materials include: card- board, newspaper, aluminum, and tin. County officials say the most con- venient way to use the transfer station is to arrange residential garbage pick- up by Lakeshore Disposal, the refuse company contracted by Valley County to handle solid waste and operation of the transfer station. Part-time residents may also ar- range collection by Lakeshore Dis- posal. h 9tca w'3 Nov ill199.3 Valley opens trash station Tuesday marked the first day of operation for the new Valley County transfer station site, located near the Valley County landfill east of Don- nelly. The "Material Recover Facility" opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday and re- ceived its first loads of household garbage as refuse trucks completed garbage pickup routes throughout the area, Lakeshore Disposal owner Tony Totorica said. The first trailer load of garbage was transported "on its maiden voy- age" to the regional landfill in Can- yon County on Wednesday, Totorica said. "I'm very delighted," he said. `.`It's a new addition to our business and it's a new venture." He said that while household gar- bage will now be handled at the trans- fer station, construction debris will continue to be placed in the landfill until the landfill is closed on April 9, 1994. In a related item, Lakeshore Dis- posal began direct billing last month for both residential and commercial garbage disposal in Valley County. The billing previously was handled by Valley County. Lakeshore cus- tomers will notice a number of changes on their monthly bills, including the following: Residential Pickup • Bills for garbage pickup will be mailed quarterly with payment due within 30 days of the billing. Service will be stopped if payment is not received in that time and a $15 han- dling fee will be added to the account. • Returned checks will be assessed a $15 fee which will be added to the account. Guidelines for residential garbage pickup include: • Each residential customer is al- lowed up to three cans or three large tied garbage bags of household gar- bage. Anything over the limit will be picked up for an added charge. • Garbage should be put out for pickup by 7 a.m. on the scheduled route day. Commercial Pickup • Billing will be on a monthly basis with the same fees assessed for late payments and returned checks.Nei they residential or commercial garbage includes: construction debris, tree stumps, trunks, large limbs or logs, vehicle bodies or bulk metals, tires, wheels, batteries, used oil, appliances, furniture, industrial or agricultural refuse, hot ashes, animal feces or dead animals, poison, acids, explosives, toxins or toxic material, medical waste, asbestos or radioactive materi- als, dirt and rocks. /Onq )e /gyp y r-lroc-a�� /- A/ q 3 New refuse station experiencing growing pains Ray Stout Staff Writer MCCALL — In four weeks of operation of the new Materials Recovery Facility northeast of Donnelly, workers at the former landfill site have already been scrambling to keep up, according to operator Tony Totorica. The MRF — now properly called a "merf," no longer "transfer station" — has been sending its two new walking -floor trailers to the Canyon County landfill and back more frequently than expected, said Totorica, owner of Lakeshore Disposal. Although the snow has resulted in only seven or eight visitors dropping off materials each day, he said, the volume is substantial. "We're not able to keep up with the flow right now." Totorica said. "I think there's been more of a flow than we all anticipated. And this is the dead of the season in Valley County." He had thought three round trips a week to the Canyon County landfill would be enough, he said, but the average has been five. The MRF is designed to accommodate house- hold debris, which from there is sent to Canyon County. Non -household, or construction, debris is destined for the old Davis landfill nearby, 95 percent of which has been closed, said Totorica. The recyclables, he said, are not yet handled at the MRF but sent to Western Recycling in Boise. Before the MRF began operating, he said, garbage was simply dumped into the landfill and covered. But now, "you become aware of how much garbage there really is when you see it processed in the transfer trailers," Totorica said. "It's surprising." However, Valley County Engineer Les Ankenman said the new facility has been running "nominal- ly the way we anticipated." He said it was too early for concern about the additional trips to Canyon County. Chris Hull, who collects dumping fees for Valley County at the site, said it's a good idea for people to find out what's there before they bring materials to dump. "We encourage people to come up just to look, if nothing else, just to see what a transfer station is," he said. Problems that have surfaced include the appear- ance in the household -garbage waste stream of tires, batteries and oil -based containers, all of which have to be recycled. "It's been more than we anticipated seeing in the waste stream," said Totorica. "The contract with Canyon County doesn't permit us to take it to their landfill." In addition, household garbage has been found mixed in with the construction debris. The early stages of the project have been "a lot of trial and error," Totorica said. Yet to be com- pleted are construction of a maintenance building and a study of potential sites for a recyclables-pro- cessing facility. Sorting of recyclables out of the waste stream will begin after bailers are acquired to fasten bun- dles of materials together, Totorica said. The recy- clable white metal goods, such as washers and dry- ers, will be ready for recycling after completion of the maintenance building, which will include a mechanism for removing the freon. Totorica said, the facility will also need an addi- tional trailer or two in the near future. "I project we're going to have to have four trail- ers to make this operation run smoothly," he said. The pritnary goal for the MRF, said Totorica, is to be fully equipped and operational by May 1 while the landfill must comply with federal sub- title D regulations by Oct. 9. "Right now, we're fighting with the elements," he said. 'Next spring we're going to be fighting with the volume coming in." 1-.Ohe 143I0,y Advocate .De.c, t, i q9y Valley Countys new solid waste disposal program working well Program marks first year of operation CASCADE — One year into the program, and Valley County's new solid waste disposal program, which involves shipping waste to Canyon County instead of operating a landfill, is working well, Valley County officials said here Monday. With figures from the first year of operation in hand, the Valley County Commissioners said it looks like it's going to work out about as well as they fig- ured. Though the figures for expenditures and revenues aren't exactly in balance — something that might be expected of a program with a first -year budget of nearly $350,000 — the numbers aren't so far off that Commissioners will be scrambling for money. Or, even worse, hitting up county property owners with an increase in the solid waste disposal fee. That budget has shrunk a bit for the current year, as included in the just -concluded year's budget were some one-time start-up costs. "It means we can go another year without an increase in solid waste fees," Valley County Clerk Lee Heinrich said about the numbers. "It means it's working," Commission Chairman Tom Olson said. About two years ago, faced with new water qual- ity standards imposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, along with few, if any really suit: able sites to be found in the county for a new land- fill, Commissioners decided to pursue transporting waste out of the county. After an agreement was reached with Canyon County, which had just constructed a new approved landfill, Commissioners decided to closedown the existing landfill northeast of Donnelly and build a transfer station. Solid waste collected around the county is taken to that transfer station, sorted, compressed and then loaded on trucks for transfer to the Canyon County site. Helping to keep the program in the black is rev- enue generated from gate fees charged those who transport their own garbage to the landfill. Those fees totalled more than $43,000 during the first year of operation. And that total doesn't reflect an addi- tional $22,000 collected from the U.S. Forest Service for garbage transported to the transfer station from the busy firecamps of this past summer. The balance of the operation is paid for by the solid waste fees charged county residents. In other matters, the Commissioners discussed the new county regulation regarding covering dump- sters. The uncovered dumpsters are collectors of snow and ice and the county is paying for that to be shipped to Canyon County. As a result, commercial dumpsters in the county are now required to be cov- ered. Lakeshore Disposal, the vendor is working towards the installation of covers on all of its dump- sters. Commissioners are also facing replacement of two members of the Valley County Planning & Zoning Commission. Elting Hasbrouck has resigned, and Glenn Loomis, whose term will expire in January, has announced his intention to step aside after 19 years on the board. Loomis is willing to stay on, however, if Ralph McKenzie is unable to re -adjust his work schedule to allow him to attend more meetings. County Engineer Les .Ankenman, also said he's been contacted by the City of McCall, regarding the city s proposed plan for disposing of its sewage sys- tem effluent by doing land application on property south of Lake Fork. He told Commissioners that he's passed the mat- ter on to the P&Z Commission, as the project is going to require a Conditional Use Permit from the coun- ty. Also in need of some legal consideration are set- backs from residential uses in the area, and the def- inition of residential development — an issue the P&Z Commission has battled with before — and also a legal ruling on what constitutes the "facility." The question there is to what extent will setback requirements apply to pipelines leading to and from the land application site and a storage lagoon that will be constructed later as part of the project. Valley County proposes 50% hike in transfer site fees BY MICHAEL WELLS. The Star -News Valley County wants to in- crease its solid waste fee by 50 percent to fix a budget shortfall at the county's transfer station east of Donnelly. The Valley County Board of Commissioners will consider rate hikes for the solid waste for residential, commercial and gate fees at a public hear- ing set for 11 a.m. Monday at the Valley County Courthouse in Cascade. Currently, homeowners pay a $65 per year solid waste fee to pay the county's expense to remove trash from the trans- fer site located on Spink Lane. The new rate for residential would be $97.50. Business owners now pay between $65 and $1,519 in solid waste fees to the county. Com- mercial fees would increase to a range of $97.50 to $2,279 under the proposal. Fees charged for various items at the gate of the transfer station also would increase by 50 percent under the proposal, including: • Auto and light truck tires would rise from $2 each to $3 each. • A load of brush that costs $3.50 now would cost $5.25. • Separated wood construc- tion debris that costs $16 now would cost $24. The proposal would not af- fect monthly fees charged for collecting trash and are also separate from the county's recycling operation. The fee increases are being considered because of the increased cost of transporta- tion of the trash to a landfill in Mountain Home, Valley County Clerk Archie Banbury said. "The current rates were set when the cost of diesel was $3, now it's gone up to as much as $5," Banbury said. The increase would also go to offset increases in work- er's compensation insurance rates. If the fee increases are not put into place, the budget for solid waste would be short about $300,000 this year, Ban- bury said. Last year the county's budget to operate the site was about $1.4 million. This year's budget calls for $1.9 million. The county collected about $477,000 from gate receipts through August for the fis- cal year that ended Sept: 30. September figures were not available. The county also billed residential and commercial customers about $770,000 in solid waste fees last year. Lakeshore Disposal oper- ates the transfer site. The fee increase also con- siders the transfer site will need to be enlarged in the future, Banbury said. The county has one full- time employee and one part-time employee at the site. Lakeshore Disposal has four employees at the site and four -long -haul drivers. Lake Shore holds off on recycling cutbacks Trash company will continue talks with Valley County BY DAN GALLAGHER for The Star -News Lake Shore Disposal is holding off on scaling back its services at Valley County recycling depots as it negotiates with the county over its rates, company officials say. Last month, Lake Shore Site Manager Everette Arter said the company had increased the number of visits to the recycling stations in the three towns. However, the county continued to pay Lake Shore at the level established in a 2003 agreement. Lake Shore had given the county commissioners until Feb. 1 to raise its monthly payments from $2,130 to $6,500 at which time the number of visits were threatened to be reduced. "The county has asked us not to do it," Arter said "As long as we're negotiating in good faith, we will continue to service them at the current level." In 2003, Lake Shore agreed it would spend four hours a day, five days per week, processing and bailing recyclables. Since then it has doubled that time or more each day without extra pay, although costs such as fuel, labor and insurance have all climbed, Arter said. A roaming employee keeps the sites neat during the week and Lake Shore is hauling away more recycling containers than in years past. He said Lake Shore had asked for an increase in hauling and recycling rates. The commissioners tumed down the hauling hike and never gave the company a reply on the recycling duties, Arter said. The money Valley County pays to Lake Shore for recycling is a subsidy since the various paper and metal brought in do not completely pay Lake Shore for its recycling costs, he said. http://www.mccallstarnews.com/pages/fp_stories,page.php 2/9/2012 This week's front page stories Page 1 of 1 Valley County to stop taking glass for recycling Current use of glass in road beds too costly "Glass is heavy, dangerous to handle and has little or no market value. "—Rachele Klein BY DAN GALLAGHER for The Star -News Valley County will no longer accept glass for recycling starting Jan. 1. The county and its waste contractor, Lake Shore Disposal, will stop collecting glass from the county's recycling sits in McCall, Donnelly and Cascade. The glass has no value as a recycled material, but the county has been crushing the glass and using it as base material for road projects But a study of the costs of using glass for roads found it would be cheaper to have Lake Shore haul it away, Valley County Solid Waste Supervisor Ralph McKenzie said. The county spends $157 more per cubic yard to add glass to a road project over the cost of using gravel, McKenzie said. Bottles, particularly wine bottles, are difficult to crush, forcing extra gravel to be laid over the glass to prevent tires from being punctured by protruding edges, he said. The cost of removing garbage from the bottles and jars was not considered in the analysis, but is significant, McKenzie said. .:c Star News Photo by l""m Got. Lynn Monslata of t.lc( .al dssposes of glass bottles on Monday at the McCall'eccchng center Palley County �nll dcscoutmue collecting glass lot recycling on Jan i The county still has a stockpile it will plow into the roads until that supply is used up. Similar Problem Elsewhere The situation is similar throughout the country, especially in rural areas that transport the materials over great distances to recycling centers like Portland and Salt Lake City, McKenzie said. Republic Services, which collects solid waste in Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties, sends its glass to Environmental Abrasives of Boise, which pulverizes it for uses such as sandblasting, said Rachele Klein, Republic business development manager. Boise had a deal with the Ada County Highway District to accept the glass for road base, but not enough new roads were being built to use up the glass, Klein said. "Glass is a tricky material to recycle because it is heavy, dangerous to handle and has little or no market value," she said. "That being said, people are very emotionally committed to recycling glass." Owens-Ilinois, Inc., accepts glass at its Portland plant, but it must be separated by color and cleaned, said Rick Gillihan, general manager of Westem Recycling in Boise. "They pay little to nothing for it, and it certainly isn't close to covering your freight costs," Gillihan said. The county's decision is a sad note, said Mary Hart of Lake Fork, who worked with the citizens group Recycle Partners to foster recycling. "I'm disappointed that we - not just Valley County, the state and United States - don't have an option for recycling glass," Hart said. "Ifs really discouraging," she said. "I don't see it as waste, but as a resource. The first rule is to reduce." Glass may take more landfill space, but it is an inert material that lasts for thousands of years and will not leach pollutants into the groundwater, McKenzie said. http://www.mccallstarnews.com/pages/fp_stories_page.php 12/6/20l 2 This week's front page stories Page 1 of 1 Valley transfer station handled 10,220 tons of trash in 2014 BY DAN GALLAGHER for The Star -News Valley County's transfer site east of Donnelly handled 10,220 tons of materials in the last fiscal year, but that is less than half the amount coming in when the construction industry was in full swing. The figures were provided to Valley County commissioners on Monday by Ralph McKenzie, who administers the county's solid waste program. Commissioner Elt Hasbrouck noted that the amount of household garbage, appliances, tires and other waste brought to the site appeared to be increasing by about 1,000 tons per year. But that is a far cry from the days that huge new subdivisions were in the works for Valley County and contractors were bringing in more far truckloads of construction waste. "If you went back to 2007, it was 24,000 tons," commission Chair Gordon Cruickshank said. Since then, the transfer facility has been upgraded to process more waste, McKenzie said. Receipts from the transfer station from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was about $379,000, the same as 2013, he said. The county received $45,000 in sales of recyclables last year, but that was offset by a reduction in hauling demolition waste, which was opened to private companies last year, McKenzie said. Those private haulers may take waste to a landfill in the Weiser area, or to the same Mountain Home landfill where Valley County sends its waste. Lakeshore Disposal is on contract with the county to transfer and haul away its residential and commercial trash. Lakeshore charged just under $900,000 in the last fiscal year, compared with about $870,000 the year before, McKenzie said. http://www.mccallstarnews.com/pages/fp stories_page.php 12/11/2014 Star -News News Main News Page Page 1 of 1 85% favor roadside recycling by Lake Shore Company seeks to replace recycling centers in Valley County BY TOM GROTE for The Star -News A total of 85 percent of respondents to an online survey said they favored roadside recycling in Valley County. The survey, sponsored by Lake Shore Disposal, also found that 42 percent of respondent would be willing to pay up to $5 more per month to help pay for the new service, while an additional 47 percent would be willing to pay up to $10 more per month. A total of 394 people had responded by Tuesday to the survey, which was posted last month. Lake Shore is hoping to convince officials in Valley County and the cities of McCall, Donnelly and Cascade to begin roadside recycling. Under the proposal, roadside recycling would use bins similar to the green bins now used for trash. All recyclables would be co -mingled, with no need to separate tin, aluminum, plastic and paper. Glass is not now accepted for recycling but would be studied as part of the proposal. Only current customers of Lake Shore Disposal would have roadside recycling added. Solid waste collection is voluntary in McCall and outside city limits, but is mandatory in Cascade and Donnelly. There would be an added monthly charge for curbside recycling, but the goal would be to also reduce the county's annual solid waste assessment, which was $85 last year, Lake Shore Site Manager Paul Dionne said. The assessment pay for the operation of the county's transfer station on Spink Road east of Donnelly, while the monthly fees pay collection costs. Lake Shore would make fewer semi -truck trips to a landfill in Mountain Home if more household trash was recycled, Dionne said. The main benefit of roadside recycling would be the elimination of recycling centers in McCall, Donnelly and Cascade, he said. The centers have had constant problems with litter and they are not convenient to use by many residents, Dionne said. Public meetings and other public information will be conducted before Lake Shore makes a formal proposal to the county and cities, he said. Lake Shore Disposal is owned by Waste Connections Inc., a Texas company that has more than two million customers in 31 states. Survey respondents were also asked to provide written comments. Here are some excerpts. All comments were submitted anonymously: We need curbside recycling! The central facilities are a mess. I would also appreciate the convenience." "I think it would be beneficial to all Valley County Residents and instill more recycling habits having it picked up at your curb rather than driving to a center. I think glass recycling is also necessary and l would pay a little extra for that as well." "I think this is a GREAT idea as would obviously encourage more people to recycle, and also help eliminate people leaving recyclable crap at the recycle station in town!" "Using the present recycling is pretty bad. The bins need to be emptied more frequently. So curbside is a great option." "The recycling center right now are a joke. Too much garbage and not maintained." "The issue is not curbside pickup/recycling - it is Lakeshore's inability or unwillingness to adequately and professionally manage and maintain the current recycling collection point - what a mess!!!" "We are 40 years behind many community in the country on recycling. Let's protect our environment and save our beautiful city and county for our children to grow up in." "The real solution is to redesign the recycling centers to allow easier deposit and disposal of the recyclables. The current solution in McCall leaves much to be desired. I don't want to pay for another bin that takes up space and needs to be set out every week. Especially during winter." http://www.mccallstarnews.com/pages/fp_stories_page.php 1 /7/2016