Otto mulled as centra site

By BRENDA TENBOER
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has sent a group of about 20 players back to the table and they are taking another hard look at Otto as a possible site for a regional landfill facility.
Members of the Big Horn Basin planning area core group of representatives for the two Big Horn County landfills and those in Worland, Thermopolis and Ten Sleep attended a meeting in Worland on Oct. 21. The Cody landfill in Park County was originally part of the core group but chose to pull out of the planning efforts.
The city of Powell, also in Park County, was the newcomer to the table. The Powell landfill, with very little life left has resorted to signing a one-year contract to dispose of waste in Cody.
Craig McOmie, DEQ Integrated Solid Waste planning manager, who is in the process of reviewing 20-year plans from the Big Horn Basin Planning Area that includes the Greybull and Lovell landfills in Big Horn County was also in attendance. He said, “I’m not saying you did not meet statutory requirements. We started this project in 2006 and 2009 looked like it was a long ways down the road, but here we are. I just think we ran out of time to look at some of the more detailed options.”
The reality in many instances is that land space and money can be saved when landfill managers join forces and look at economy of scale, according to IM engineer Howard Johnson who was hired to lead the project.
The Ten Sleep landfill, which is operated by a volunteer board, will ultimately close down household waste operations and only accept construction and demolition waste such as concrete, said board member Jim Sutherland.
The Worland landfill is centrally located and with a low groundwater level, it could be dug deeper and accommodate waste from Ten Sleep, Thermopolis, Powell and even Big Horn County.
Recent well water test results show at least one channel is open for organic contamination in Worland, however, and the DEQ will most likely require a $1 million plus liner.
Worland landfill manager Stan Wostenberg said he isn’t ready to commit Worland as a regional site, but supports additional cost analysis of options.
With a balance of roughly $100,000 remaining of the project budget and the state picking up 90 percent of the engineering costs, the group reached a consensus to study more options and further details.
Constructing an entirely new facility in the Otto area is still a seemingly viable option, with the right soil composition and roadways, said Johnson.
Other options that will be considered for Big Horn County include closing the south landfill and erecting a baling station at the landfill near Lovell. Trucking all the county’s household waste to Cody is another option.
“They have said they will accept garbage from other sites, but they’ve just put in an expensive liner and said they would have to be the regional (site),” Grant said.
McComie said there are definite advantages to being a host site.
“The more you pile on, the less it costs you,” McComie said. “You can frame this project as economic development.”
The additional study results should be completed by spring 2010, Johnson said.