Landfill juggling messy costs with cleanup

The Bannock County landfill is facing a sticky financial situation that could run deeper than the trash wells at the facility itself.

In fact, this past year, the landfill took a hard hit when it was at the center of an ongoing investigation that launched after the county’s former public works director Dan Copeland was suspected of the facility’s $623,000 budget deficit.

Copeland since retired, and now the county is left cleaning up.

Now, the facility might be taking another hit to the wallet.

County engineer and interim public works director Jeremy Welch said the landfill was first built in the 1940s, long before most any landfill regulations were put in place across the county.

“Somewhere down the line, someone dumped something in there they most likely weren’t supposed to,” Welch said. “In those days, it was ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and they just started dumping waste.”

He said, it wasn’t until the 1990s when county regulations were put in place, and testing showed levels of TC and PC in the water monitoring wells below the ground.

Those are chlorinated solvents that can cause health issues if the concentrations are high enough.

However, Welch said the county and the DEQ have been working to make sure none of that contaminated water seeps into the private wells we source our drinking water.

“At this point, there has been no contamination above drinking water standards,” Welch assured. “The county is just being proactive just to be safe.”

He said the contaminated monitoring wells sit below the private wells, so everyone’s drinking water in Bannock County should still be safe.

Right now the DEQ and the county are in the process of contacting neighbors who live near the landfill to test their wells.

After they test those wells, they’ll see just how much of the system is contaminated.

From there, both the county and the DEQ will determine how to best clean-up the mess and how much sticker shock Bannock County will be in before footing that bill.

“As we keep working and moving forward, it depends on the test results and so it’s really hard to put a number on right now.”

In September, the landfill was able to put in a new well that could hold up to 35 years worth of garbage.