DMC landfill to open new facility

By Erik Owomoyela

The Des Moines County Regional Landfill is looking forward to a cleaner, more efficient business thanks to a new facility set to open next week.

After a ribbon-cutting scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, the DMC Regional Landfill will feature an open house to showcase its new scale house and HazChem Center building. Darven Kendell, the commission's education coordinator, said the building will replace a pair of aging structures in need of an update.

"We had a scale house building that was outdated and inefficient, as well as a HazChem facility that was basically a modified garage and a mobile home office - and was not efficient for what we needed to do," he said.

The new building features green construction methods that are expected to both improve efficiency and extend its life expectancy, at a substantial savings for the landfill. "It also improves customer service dramatically for landfill as well as haz-chem customers," Kendell said.

Covering 350 acres of land northwest of West Burlington, the landfill serves 55,000 residents of Des Moines county and most cities in Henry County, including Mt. Pleasant, New London and Winfield. Normally the landfill takes in around 200 tons of garbage each day, Kendell said, though the amount has risen in the wake of this summer's floods.

For more, see our Sept. 26 print edition.