Can We Do A Better Job Managing Our Trash?

We know where we are … and need to decide where to go next!

Operators of existing solid waste systems in Wyoming are facing many environmental, regulatory, and financial challenges. Monitoring data suggest that some landfills are leaking and polluting groundwater. Most landfills are unlined, and will soon be required to install expensive engineered containment systems (i.e., liners) if they continue to accept municipal solid waste. Wyoming cities, towns, and counties already spend a lot of money to manage their refuse, and even more money will be needed to address existing problems and future regulatory requirements.

Your elected officials and the solid waste professionals in your local community have been working with the other members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area to prepare comprehensive inventories of existing solid waste systems. The inventories document the capacity, regulatory, and financial issues facing existing facilities, and provide a detailed economic analysis of the current life-cycle cost of managing wastes and recyclable commodities at each facility. The inventories also provide forecasts of the size and characteristics of the solid waste and recyclable commodity streams that are expected to be generated in the next 20 years.

The members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area are now focusing their efforts on identifying alternative systems that have the potential to provide solutions to the various issues they are facing. Using their years of local experience managing solid waste and recyclable commodities, they have reviewed current state, regional, and national trends, and considered the unique needs of their communities. After discussing a variety of ideas, they narrowed their list of potential alternatives down to those that were most likely to provide reasonable, cost-effective solutions for at least the next 20 years.

What Does The Existing System Look Like?

The Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area includes the City of Laramie, the City of Cheyenne and the Eastern Laramie County Solid Waste Disposal District (ELCSWDD), all within Laramie and Albany Counties. Currently, there are two unlined landfills, one lined landfill, and two solid waste transfer stations operating in the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area. Some of these facilities provide waste diversion and/or recycling opportunities. There are also several stand-alone recycling centers currently operating within the planning area. The current life-cycle costs of operating these existing facilities are highly variable. In general, the larger facilities are managing solid wastes and recyclable commodities at a lower cost per ton than the smaller facilities.

What Alternatives Are Being Considered?

The members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area are committed to managing solid wastes and recyclable commodities in an environmentally responsible manner. They know that the facilities they provide need to be safe and convenient. Just as importantly, they know that local residents and businesses expect their system to be efficient and cost-effective.

The cost of a landfill, transfer station, compost facility, or recycling center is usually a function of the size of the facility and the amount of wastes or commodities that it manages. This concept, known as “the economies of scale,” means that the bigger a facility is and the more wastes and commodities it manages, the cheaper it will be to manage each ton of wastes or commodities. To take advantage of this concept, it is necessary to consider regionalizing facilities and services instead of replicating them on a smaller scale in multiple areas. Regionalization of solid waste facilities and services has already been successfully implemented in rural western states like Wyoming, and has helped communities offset the economic impact associated with rising disposal costs. A regionalization project involving six counties in southern Idaho actually resulted in an overall net decrease in disposal costs.

After carefully considering the wide variety of issues associated with existing facilities and integrated solid waste management, the members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area identified the following alternatives for further analysis and consideration:

•	Alternative #1 “Status Quo with Regulatory Upgrades” – Under this alternative, each of the planning partners would maintain their current operation while making changes necessary to meet current regulatory requirements. The City of Laramie and ELCSWDD would upgrade their facilities by lining their existing landfills. The City of Cheyenne would transport municipal solid wastes (MSW) to the North Weld County Landfill in Ault, Colorado and continue to operate the Happy Jack Landfill as a lined construction/demolition landfill.
•	Alternative #2 “One Regional Landfill” - This alternative assumes that a regional, lined landfill would be operated by the City of Cheyenne for disposal of MSW and construction demolition wastes (CDW) generated within the planning area. The City of Cheyenne would continue to operate the Happy Jack Landfill as its lined construction/demolition landfill until it reaches capacity. Transfer stations would be built at the City of Laramie Landfill and at the ELCSWDD Landfill at Burns to accommodate wastes being transported to the regional facility. The City of Laramie would close its current landfill and operate a transfer station and compost facility at the closed landfill site. ELCSWDD would operate their transfer station at the existing landfill site and continue to use the existing landfill for composting operations and unlined disposal of CDW.
•	Alternative #3 “No local Landfills” - This alternative assumes that each planning partner would utilize a transfer station to accommodate transport of MSW and/or CDW to a large regional landfill located outside the planning area, specifically the North Weld County Landfill in Ault, Colorado. Under this alternative, the City of Cheyenne facilities would maintain their current operation. The City of Laramie and ELCSWDD would close their existing landfills and construct new transfer stations. Laramie’s solid waste would be direct-hauled to Ault, while ELCSWDD’s waste would be transferred to the City of Cheyenne Transfer Station for subsequent transport to Ault.
•	Alternative #4 “Three Local Landfills” - This alternative assumes local communities would dispose of wastes in three local landfills. Under this alternative, the City of Laramie and ELCSWDD Landfills would be upgraded to handle MSW in lined cells. The City of Cheyenne would develop a new lined landfill and operate their existing facilities in conjunction with the new disposal site.
•	Alternative #5 “Two Local Landfills” - This alternative assumes that the City of Cheyenne would develop a new lined landfill facility and the City of Laramie would upgrade their landfill to a lined facility. ELCSWDD would close their landfill, construct a transfer station and direct-haul MSW and CDW to the North Weld County Landfill in Ault.

For each of the alternatives identified above, the members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area agreed that additional waste diversion and recycling/composting programs should be provided at each facility to reduce the amount of wastes that are transported and disposed. Therefore, each alternative evaluation includes cost estimates for composting programs and recycling options. It should also be noted that the proposed use of unlined disposal cells for wastes that pose less of threat to the environment than municipal solid wastes will be subject to approval by the WDEQ based on site-specific conditions.

How Can You Get Involved?

Local and regional members of the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Area have held a number of open meetings to work on this project. The status of existing facilities has been summarized and an estimate of the costs of the various solid waste management alternatives is being prepared. Once the estimated costs of the various alternatives are known, the Southeastern Wyoming Planning Group will be meeting, soliciting more input, and then recommending a preferred alternative for final consideration by June 2009. Please keep your eyes and ears open for more information about this important project, and feel free to attend any of our meetings because they are all open to the public.

If you have any questions, would like more information, or just want to offer your thoughts on this matter, please visit our web page (www.southeasternwyomingiswm.com) or write to us at:

Southeastern Wyoming ISWM
c/o Trihydro Corporation
1252 Commerce Drive
Laramie, WY 82070