Support offered for Iron Range landfill

Carlton County is preparing for its waste disposal future.

With the sunsetting of the Superior, Wisconsin landfill looming sometime in 2027-28, the county board approved a letter of support for a proposed Keewatin landfill during the board’s meeting in Carlton Tuesday.

“Carlton County recognizes that there is still a need for environmentally protective landfills,” said the letter supporting Shakopee, Minnesota-based Dem-Con’s proposal for a regional waste disposal and recycling operation in Keewatin — some 85 miles northwest of Carlton on the Iron Range.

When the time comes, the county will issue a similar letter of support for St. Louis County’s proposed landfill in Canyon, said Heather Cunningham, zoning and environmental services administrator. A Canyon landfill would be roughly 30 miles from the county seat in Carlton.

“The more options we have for solid waste in the future will help our pocket books,” Cunningham told the board.

In 2022, Carlton County disposed of approximately 13.2 tons of municipal solid waste, 3,946 tons of mixed waste and 579 tons of construction/demolition waste.

“This volume could be available for disposal at a regional facility if the economics and environmental factors are favorable to the county,” the letter said.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency hasn’t sited a new landfill in the state since 1993.

“There are employees at the MPCA who have worked their entire careers without permitting a new landfill,” Cunningham told the Pine Knot.

The MPCA favors an integrated waste management program, incorporating composting, reduction, reuse and recycling.

Earlier this year, Carlton County joined St. Louis County and five other counties to publish a roughly 150-page report, dubbed the Northeast Minnesota Regional Solid Waste Management Plan. The report stresses a need for new landfills in the region.

“The northeast region disposed of an estimated 167,000 tons of municipal solid waste in calendar year 2020,” the report said. “An estimated 40 percent of the region’s municipal solid waste was disposed of at the Superior Landfill located in Superior, Wisconsin.”

Thirty-two percent of the region’s municipal solid waste was disposed of at the existing St. Louis County landfill (in Virginia), and the remainder was disposed of at landfills outside the region, the report said.

Siting regional landfills would prevent rising trucking fees to landfills outside the area.

The commercial Dem-Con proposal and St. Louis County’s proposal for a roughly $70 million-$80 million waste management campus in Canyon both have equal standing among supporters, Cunningham said.

She said more options were better to keep costs competitive.

A passage in the latest regional solid waste management plan showcases efforts made by Carlton County to reduce its reliance on landfills:

“The first Solid Waste Management Plan for Carlton County was approved by the state in 1985. Subsequently, this plan was updated in 1991 and 2000.

“Over the last 30 years, the county has broadened solid waste services to provide: expanded recycling services, education to residents and businesses for waste reduction and reuse, conservation, and household hazardous waste management. Additional staff to manage the solid waste and recycling programs and services.”

Demonstration projects, such as mattress recycling, have also reduced the amount of waste headed to landfills, the report said.

Still, officials throughout the region are planning, in unison, to convince the MPCA that landfills continue to have a place in the waste disposal matrix.

The proposed landfills in Keewatin and Canyon would be conversions of industrial and demolition landfills into sites capable of handling municipal solid waste.

“The purpose of pursuing the conversion of these sites into municipal solid waste landfills is to provide the region with adequate disposal capacity and reduce overall hauling distances and the related costs associated with the region’s current municipal solid waste disposal system,” said the Northeast Minnesota Regional Solid Waste Management Plan.