I suppose not everyone would find an hour-long conversation about the landfill in small-town Pagosa Springs to be engaging and thought-provoking.
Not everyone is cut out to be a small-town journalist, or a small-town political leader.
But pretty much everyone in our small town ultimately makes use of the landfill, even if they never visit it ‘in person’. And likely, everyone would take notice if the cost of trash service were to suddenly double, or triple. In particular, perhaps, our local construction industry.
When SEH geologist Julie Linn told the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners that our landfill is quickly filling up — maybe, faster than anyone expected — she mentioned that “these numbers, down here — the last few years, 2020 and 2021 — they do not include what we call ‘C&D’. Construction and demolition debris…”
I didn’t understand what she meant, so after she and Road and Bridge Manager Kevin Pogue finished their presentation, I asked her to shed some additional light on her comment.
“So, the number that I used on that spreadsheet that I gave them,” she explained, “was a number that we use to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. So, the landfills generate methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Because construction and demolition debris — lumber and drywall — doesn’t… it’s not organic matter that’s going to generate methane… so we remove that volume from that calculation. So the actual volume of material that was dumped in there [during 2021] was about 72,000 [cubic yards]. The number that we used for the greenhouse gas calculation was 32,000. So the number that was on the spreadsheet… about half the volume that was added to the landfill last year was construction and demolition.
“Lumber, and drywall, and that kind of stuff.”
I suggested to Ms. Linn that this would suggest, the problem with our landfill quickly reaching its limit has very little to do with glass recycling, or paper recycling, or aluminum recycling… The biggest problem is waste generated by the construction industry. Right?
“It’s one of the big ones, yeah,” she agreed. “Green waste is another big issue. Limbs, brush, slash, stumps, pine needles. Pine needles are huge. All that stuff is going into the landfill, and it’s organic material, so it will eventually break down…”
“And give off methane?” I suggested, with a smile.
“Yes, exactly. But those two kinds of materials [C&D and green waste]… most landfills divert those waste streams. They separate them out. So, your construction and demolition debris goes into a separate pile, where it can be handled on its own. And then your green waste… if you have a chipper or a grinder, you can chip that green waste and use it for alternative daily cover. That’s one of the ways that you can do that. Or you can start a compost pile and compost that, and then sell the compost back to the community.”
Or, if you are Archuleta County, you can do none of these things, and talk instead about recycling glass.
Here’s a chart created by BigRentz.com, on a web page that discusses which U.S. states are dumping the most trash into their landfills. This particular chart shows a typical mix of materials that ends up in a landfill, based on data from the EPA.
As we can see, ‘wood’ and ‘miscellaneous inorganic waste’ (like maybe drywall?) typically make up only about 10% of the trash dumped into a community landfill. But Archuleta County is not a typical community. The percentage of C&D debris here is about 50%, according to Ms. Linn.
Which would suggest (if you consider about the issue thoughtfully) that ‘glass’ in Archuleta County probably accounts for much less than the 5% found in a typical landfill. Maybe 3%?
Is ‘glass recycling’ where we want to put our time, energy and money?
Or should our Board of County Commissioners, and their staff, spend time, energy, and our money, to get a handle on our two biggest issues — C&D, and green waste?
Here’s another comment from last week’s work session. We’re listening to County Manager Derek Woodman, referring the community of Chama, New Mexico, about 40 minutes to the south.
“One of the big problems is, the landfill in Chama does not accept construction debris. So guess where it all comes? It comes up here…”
Based on the numbers we were shown last week… if Archuleta County simply stopped accepting C&D debris, we would double the remaining life of our problematic landfill.
No one suggested such a tactic last Tuesday, however. What was suggested, instead, was an increase in fees.
Commissioner Warren Brown:
“It sounds like there’s going to be — and folks need to know — that there is going to be a raise in rates.”
Commissioner Alvin Schaaf:
“And it’s not going to be an increase from $20 to $40. It’s going to have to go to $65.”
Road and Bridge Manager Kevin Pogue:
“Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done now…”
Commissioner Ronnie Maez:
“Well, we need to, probably, act a lot quicker. So I would like to see something come before us for a fee adjustment. Up the rates on that.”
Mr. Pogue:
“I think that’s a great place to start, increase the fees… I think the fees going up, and getting a scale moved in, those are all critical parts of getting this thing back on track…”
Ms. Linn recommended caution, however, when considering increased fees.
If the cost of trash disposal goes up to quickly, people will start finding other places to dump their trash. In the national forest, for example.
Other recommendations? To do a better job of segregating C&D debris and green waste. Look at purchasing a glass crushing machine. Better staff training. Installing a scale. Improve the facilities for the employees at the landfill.
Thinking back on my work as a Daily Post reporter, I recall a discussion about 12 years ago with the Town’s sanitation manager, Phil Starks. He was working on an idea to create a composting system on some town-owned adjacent to the transfer station on Trujillo Road.
For some reason, the composting plan never took off. Bureaucratic inertia, perhaps?
How different things might have looked in 2022 if that idea had been allowed to blossom.