Grading the transfer

The Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District board (UPRSWDD) convened on Wednesday at 7 p.m at the Saratoga Town Hall to discuss how the implementation of the new transfer station was going. Lloyd Buford, UPRSWDD board member, gave a report of a meeting he had with Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Robert Doctor, Solid Waste Permitting and Corrective Action Program Manager.

Ron Munson, contracted to run both Encampment and Saratoga landfills, said the new baler was working well. He also gave landfill site reports on both landfills.

The board agreed to a payment of $53,081.25 for the new baler, paying off all but ten percent.

Randy Raymer, chairman of the board, was at the landfill earlier in the day and watched the operations and made this observation.

“One thing we noticed from Sue’s (Sue Jones, UPRSWDD board member) people and my people is they can’t see anyone waving them through the window,” Raymer said. “I think one of the things we should have, is some sort of red and green light for drivers to see or something like that.”

The longest discussed topic of the evening was what policy to take towards the disposal of dead animal carcasses.

Buford said his meeting with Doctor gave him the understanding that Saratoga landfill is allowed to have a dead animal pit until December 2018. Buford said Doctor’s answer for dealing with the carcasses was compost. Having the construction pit (CP) allows for the landfill to take compost of the dead animals for the present time.

“We have a window of opportunity between now and December 2018 to figure out what we are going to do,” Buford said. “It seems to me it would be a pretty good idea to experiment on what works.”

Raymer said the compost of animal waste and green waste would have to be kept separate, but for the time being, composting could work.

The other option is hauling the animal parts to Laramie, but at this time, Raymer has not confirmed the landfill in that city will actually take the compost. Raymer said he will contact the Laramie landfill to get a definitive answer.

“They can take it because they have a lye pit, but the question is I have to get answered: Will they take it?” Raymer said.

Board member Leroy Stephenson said if Saratoga landfill was taking dead animals, he questioned how it would work with Wyoming Department of Transportation and Game and Fish bringing their dead animals.

“We need to find out what is actually going to cost us per animal,” said Stephenson.

“The only way we are going to be able to do that, is have some sort of pile up project where we have something like 100 animals and it costs us $10,000 to make that into compost, that equates to so much an animal,” Raymer said.

The board is satisfied with how the new transfer station is running but feels improvements are still needed.

“We have been running this for a little less two months but we still have a little more to learn,” Raymer said.

Steve Wilcoxson, Saratoga Town Council, told the board 15 citizens were unhappy with the closing of landfill on Sunday. Raymer said one day had to be picked and that the board would try the new hours for a year and decide if any changes needed to be made then.

The board went into executive meeting at 7:50 p.m. and came out at 8:10 p.m. No action was taken and the board adjourned.

The next scheduled UPRSWDD board meeting is 7 p.m. September 6 at the Encampment library.