Landfill director gives options for financial stability

MARENGO — A decreasing population and increasing expenses will force the Iowa County landfill to increase its rates or its tonnage in the next five to 10 years.

David Randall, landfill director, addressed the future financial state of the landfill during a meeting of the Regional Environmental Improvement Commission of Iowa County in Marengo this month.

Revenue is about $1.1 million and expenses are $975,000, Randall said. That’s operational costs only, he said.

The landfill will need an additional $281,500 a year for other expenses, such as maintenance and replacement of equipment.

By 2030, the landfill will need to buy a new scale at a cost of $100,000, Randall said. Other projected capital improvements for the next 10 years include building a new haul road at a cost of $100,000 and a new shop at $250,000.

Construction of the new cell cost the landfill $1.4 million and a third cell will cost an additional million.

Randall wants to put the landfill’s equipment on a seven-year or 10-year rotation. Under that plan, the landfill would need to buy a new compactor in 2025 at a cost of $600,000, and a new road grader, pickup, side-by-side and hydro seeder in 2026 for a total of $85,000.

Increasing the tonnage fees from $70 to $98 will bring in an additional $280,000. Increasing the assessment for residents from $29 to $46.50 will bring in the same amount, Randall said.

If the landfill fees remain as they are, the county will have to take in an additional 4,000 tons to make up the $280,000, Randall said.

The current cell has room left for about 10,000 tons of trash, about one year’s worth, said Randall. The new cell has a capacity of 40,000 tons, which will take about four years to fill, and the next cell the county plans to build will accept 80,000 tons.

In 10 years, with the third cell, the county will need an additional $500,000, around 17,000 tons a year — 7,000 more than its taking in now, or an assessment at $60, Randall said.

Tonnage is going down and the county’s population is going down, said Randall.

“I think we need more out-of-county,” said Adam Rabe, Marengo’s representative on the Commission.

Republic Services of Cedar Rapids asked to haul waste to Iowa County, but with one cell, the landfill couldn’t take the trash, said Randall. A second cell is now open, but Republic hasn’t returned, he said.

The landfill recently accepted old wooden spools from a Cedar Rapids company at the out-of-county rate of $105 and took some contaminated paper from a Cedar Rapids paper mill for $16,000, Randall said. He’s looking for other out-of-county business.

But it’s cheaper for companies to take their waste to Illinois, said Alicia Presto, of East Central Iowa Council of Governments.

ECICOG works with landfills in the region to direct trash haulers to landfills that will take their waste if the landfill in the county where the waste originated can’t, said Presto.

But the region can’t compete financially with the transfer station that takes waste to Illinois for $17 a ton.