By Sara Strong
A program that could help the city clean up its East Dodge Street dump won't work out after all.
The city of Luverne hadn't pursued the program much further than continuing to study it, but it now knows that the dump doesn't qualify for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's special offer.
John Moeger of the MPCA said, "The volume is excessive and would cost considerably more than expected."
The city and county were approached earlier this month about old dumps in the area.
The county's landfill is being recapped this summer. As MPCA has the county landfill uncovered, the city and county were told they could deposit old landfill material in the current transfer stationÕs dump without the usual tipping fees.
The city was considering taking the opportunity to clean up the dump at the end of town, east of the intersection of Phyleon Drive on East Dodge Street.
The MPCA said it could accept only about 40,000 cubic yards of material before it recaps the county landfill.
Tests on the East Dodge Street location have shown that about 60,000 cubic yards of waste are buried there, and what could be close to that much is also under what is now the privately owned land of Jim and Cathy Rockman.
But other residents' back yards might also border the old dump or contain a portion of it.
Under the MPCA's offer, only governmentally owned landfill plots could have been redeposited in the county's landfill.
To put 60,000 cubic yards of material into perspective, Moeger said it would take up to six weeks of constant semi trailer loads to haul the old dump to the landfill.
The smaller county landfills would have been more suitable en masse, but the Rock County Board of Commissioners didn't want to pursue the cost of uncovering and hauling the material to the transfer station, which could have cost as much as $150,000. That figure doesn't consider clean-up costs if hazardous materials had been uncovered.
Moeger said he understood the county and city's cautious approach to unearthing landfills. "It's your nickel if you strip, uncover, excavate and transport the material," he said.
But with water a concern in the area, Moeger said, "We are concerned about the city well field and the groundwater."
The MPCA will start uncovering the county landfill, lining it and recapping it in June and could continue through September.