Williamsburg offers to weigh trash to resolve landfill dispute

WILLIAMSBURG — In an effort to resolve a monthslong dispute with the Regional Environmental Improvement Commission, the City of Williamsburg agreed to ask its trash hauler to scale the trash it picks up in Williamsburg.

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The Regional Environmental Improvement Commission, made up of representatives from Ladora, Marengo, Millersburg, North English, Parnell, Williamsburg and unincorporated areas of Iowa County, operates the Iowa County landfill.

The Commission has complained that ABC Disposal Systems is not taking all of Williamsburg’s trash to the Iowa County Landfill as is required by a 28E agreement signed by the city.

Williamsburg City Councilman Tyler Marshall, who represents the city at the Commission, told the Williamsburg City Council in March that the Commission was not happy that not all of Williamsburg’s trash was going to the landfill in Iowa County.

ABC Disposal Systems takes 99% of the waste it collects in Williamsburg to the Iowa County landfill, ABC co-owner Chad Carter told the city council in March.

However, ABC has a route that originates in Johnson County and returns to Johnson County after picking up trash in Williamsburg.

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That trash is taken to the transfer station and goes to Illinois, said Carter. It amounts to about 20 tons a week.

Iowa County is losing out on about $40 a week, said Carter in March. “Put it on our bill.”

The City of Williamsburg could pay an additional $40 to cover that loss, said Williamsburg City Manager Aaron Sandersfeld, or it could back out of the 28E agreement.

“Given the difficulties with finding a waste hauler, … we’re going to have to back out of the 28E,” said Williamsburg City Attorney Eric Tindal in March.

Altering the route to take all of Williamsburg’s solid waste to the Iowa County landfill would increase the time it takes to run the route, and that would increase ABC’s cost, said Carter during the March city council meeting.

“We want to play well in the Iowa County sandbox,” said Williamsburg Mayor Adam Grier at the time, but the city doesn’t want to rock the boat with its trash vendor.

The council decided not to take any action.

Iowa County Supervisor Alan Schumacher, a member of the landfill commission, said in March that he had been contacted by Larry Cox of Cox Sanitation about a hauler not taking Williamsburg waste material to the Iowa County landfill.

That takes revenue from the county, said Schumacher.

Marshall did not attend the June meeting of the commission, but presented complaints to the Williamsburg City Council again following the September meeting.

ABC has already offered to pay for lost revenue, said Sandersfeld during the October council meeting.

Marshall said he’s heard no complaints from Williamsburg residents about ABC’s service, and companies the city has used previously have been “hit or miss.”

But dissolving the 28E agreement could hurt Williamsburg residents. “If we cut off the 28E agreement, [the landfill] won’t accept any waste from Iowa County residents,” Marshall said.

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The City Council suggested that the city attorney meet with the landfill’s attorney to work out the disagreement.

During the Dec. 9 city council meeting, Marshall said the landfill commission had objected, not only to ABC taking city trash out of county, but also to the hauler taking commercial garbage out of county.

The city can’t do anything about that, Marshall said. It’s a private matter.

But, per the 28E agreement the city’s waste has to go to Iowa County. It’s about $15 a week of waste going out of county, said Marshall.

The trash hauler offered to pay for the trash it’s not taking to the landfill, but “they want the actual garbage, not the value of the garbage,” said Marshall. The Commission is afraid other communities follow Williamsburg’s example, he said, and that will decrease revenue for the landfill.

“I’d say screw your 28E,” Tindal told the city council Dec. 9. by phone. Tindal said he’d email the landfill commission to resolve the problem and received no response from them.

“Sue us,” said Tindal. “I just have no patience for this.”

“This is coming from another hauler that didn’t get the bid,” said Sandersfeld.

There’s a lot of drama with trash haulers, said Marshall. They pay $70 a ton to take trash to the Iowa County landfill but only $17 a ton to take it to a transfer station that transports the trash to Illinois.

Both Sandersfeld and Tindal attended the Dec. 11 meeting of the landfill commission in Marengo to resolve the issue.

Garret Dozark, appointed to the landfill commission by the Iowa County Board of Health, said he reviewed requirements for haulers and found no requirement that they have to take waste to the Iowa County landfill.

But Alicia Presto, with East Central Iowa Council of Governments, said the 28E agreement does require that the city fall under the ECICOG regional plan.

If the trash stays in Iowa, it has to stay in the county or in the region, said Presto. “It is specifying that it does have to come to your landfill here.”

Presto said, however, that because of interstate commerce laws, the state can’t stop haulers from taking trash out of state.

The Landfill needs to designate in the 28E agreement that the waste must go to the Iowa County landfill, Dozark said.

“If haulers are required, and we find that they are not, what do we do about it?” asked Dozark. Does the landfill commission issue citations or enact a fine? Or does it do nothing?

Who is supposed to enforce it? asked Jim Rheinhart, the commission representative from North English. With a decreasing population, the last thing Iowa County needs is to lose money because its trash is going elsewhere, he said.

Rheinhart said he was in Williamsburg one day and asked the driver of the garbage truck where the trash was going. Rheinhart was told it was going to the Iowa County landfill, but the truck never showed up there, he said.

Dozark said that someone recorded a trash hauler as it left the county with Iowa County.

“It’s obvious there is tonnage not going over there,” said Rheinhart. “Williamsburg is in violation and is doing nothing about it.”

“Our whole county is vested in this,” said Rheinhart. He doesn’t understand why Williamsburg won’t “clamp down on their hauler.”

As explained by Presto, if the trash stays in Iowa, it must go to Iowa County, said Tindal. But if it goes to Milan, it doesn’t. Therefore, ABC is not in violation if it is taking trash to Illinois, he said.

Rheinhart argued that the trash was residential. He’d seen ABC empty dumpsters at a residential complex and take it out of county, he said.

But Trindal said all dumpsters are commercial. Residential properties are not allowed to have dumpsters in Williamsburg.

The owner of the multiunit facility hires the hauler, the tenants do not. Therefore, it is commercial and not in violation of the 28E agreement. Tindal said.

“We have never regulated commercial businesses,” said Tindal. If they contract with a hauler who takes the waste out of state, that’s legal.

The city is in its rights to drop the 28E and haul its waste to Milan, said Tindal. “Threatening the city of Williamsburg is probably not the way to do it.

“The city of Williamsburg’s not doing anything illegal,” said Tindal.

“They are bringing all of our residential garbage to your landfill,” said Sandersfeld. But ABC picks up commercial dumpsters and the city’s dumpsters on the same route; they don’t want to do two routes for it.

Sandersfeld said he doesn’t know how to make ABC take waste to Iowa County landfill.

The City of Williamsburg is prepared to pay for whatever amount of trash is not going to the landfill, said Sandersfeld. ABC offered to weigh when it gets to Williamsburg and before it leaves and to pay the Iowa County landfill for that tonnage.

Dozark said Williamsburg has 1,220 homes and takes only 684 tons of trash to the Iowa County landfill. Marengo has 850 homes and produces 812 tons.

“We have a curbside recycling program that Marengo doesn’t have,” said Sandersfeld.

Recycling doesn’t weigh anything, said landfill director David Randall.

Vinton also has recycling, said Adam Rabe, Marengo’s representative on the Commission, but it still produces as much tonnage as Marengo.

Our issue was always if they were bringing residential wastes, said Dozark. What if they are telling Williamsburg they are taking it to Iowa County but they aren’t?

“All we know is that we’re seeing these trucks leave the county” and the tonnage doesn’t add up.

Dozark suggested that ABC should report to Williamsburg how much trash it picks up. Sandersfeld said he’d have ABC give him a scale ticket every Wednesday.

“We’re happy to do whatever to get this resolved,” Sandersfeld said.

After the Williamsburg representatives left the meeting, Gary Boland wondered how many dumpsters Cox Sanitation and Recycling picks up in Williamsburg.

“Larry’s good about following the rules,” said John Gahring, Commission chairman. So is S & J Sanitation, he said.

“All our haulers don’t have transfer stations,” said Randall. So they all dump commercial waste in the county landfill.

Gahring said he’d like the see the contract ABC has with Williamsburg.

“Williamsburg doesn’t have an interest in them not following the rules,” said Dozark.