Williamsburg City Council seeks answers before signing 28E agreement with Iowa County landfill

WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg City Council tabled a decision on a new 28E agreement with the Regional Environmental Improvement Commission which operates the Iowa County Landfill until council members can talk to the Commission about one of the changes it finds objectionable.

City Council Members objected to a new section in Article XIV which gives the Commission authority to enforce and prosecute Iowa County flow control ordinances or any ordinances of a similar nature pertaining to the control of waste generated in Iowa County.

Tyler Marshall, Williamsburg’s representative on the Commission, said the reason for the update is the Commission’s concern that a significant amount of waste is going to the closest landfill rather than to the Iowa County Landfill. That puts the landfill’s revenue at risk.

“On it’s face it doesn’t seem particularly malignant,” said Marshall.

Williamsburg Mayor Adam Grier said he’s only aware of one such complaint from the Commission — that ABC Disposal is not taking some of Williamsburg’s commercial waste material to the landfill. The ABC route includes Johnson County, and the company takes all that trash to a transfer station which ships it out of state.

Marshall said a second hauler, Johnson County Refuge, is also taking waste out of county. He said the landfill board seems satisfied that Williamsburg’s garbage is not significant, but the Commission found some housing developments in Iowa County that are allowing their trash to be taken out of the county.

Grier thought that Williamsburg was paying the landfill for the waste ABC took out of the county, which it offered to do in December of 2024, but City Manager Aaron Sandersfeld said that a Commission member told him that the Commission decided not to take ABC up on the offer to pay for an extra ton a week that ABC was not taking to the landfill.

Sandersfeld suggested that the council ask REIC members to attend a Williamsburg City Council meeting to discuss their differences. The City sent representatives to an REIC meeting in December of 2024 to resolve the dispute about ABC and thought the issue was resolved with an offer to weigh and pay for the trash going out of the county.

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City officials also attended a meeting of the Iowa County Board of Supervisors in May of 2025 during which representatives from REIC proposed a county flow control ordinance, but REIC has yet to come to the Williamsburg City Council directly, said Sandersfeld.

Marshall said the Commission had become concerned at an “alarming” drop in numbers after Williamsburg contracted with ABC for waste removal several years ago. Sandersfeld said that ABC provides recycling bins not offered by the former trash hauler, and that reduces the amount of waste going to the landfill.

REIC has said that recycling could not account for the entire decrease.

Williamsburg’s County Attorney, Eric Tindal, objected to the new section of the 28E agreement on the grounds that the county should enforce its ordinances and that the Commission cannot do that.

City Councilman Jake Tornholm said he’s not comfortable giving REIC power to enforce a county flow control ordinance, an ordinance that currently doesn’t exist.

REIC doesn’t know that there will be a flow control ordinance, said Sandersfeld.

If there were, the county should enforce it, said Tornholm. He’s willing to negotiate a new 28E agreement, he said, but he doesn’t agree with the enforcement section.

Tindal said the city should not agree to allow REIC to enforce a county ordinance.

The City Council agreed to ask members of REIC and a couple of county supervisors to the council’s March 9 meeting to discuss the proposed change to the 28E agreement.

Sandersfeld conceded that if the outlet mall started using ABC and all of that waste left the county, it would be a big loss in revenue.

But Tindal said the only source of concern for the Commission has been the City of Williamsburg. “Why would we let them weaponize their claims?” he asked, admitting that he’s a little defensive about it.

Iowa County Supervisors approved the same 28E agreement with REIC for the county Friday. Supervisor Kevin Heitshusen said the county attorney told Supervisors that the important thing under the law would be the county’s ordinance, not the new section in the 28E agreement.

In response to an email from Williamsburg, Supervisors agreed to send two representatives from the board to the March 9 meeting of the Williamsburg City Council to hear the town’s concerns.