By Sara Strong
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is giving the city and county a chance to clean up old dumps.
The county's landfill is being recapped this summer, and as the MPCA has it open, the city and county can deposit old landfill material in the countyÕs current transfer station without tipping fees.
The county and city of Luverne both discussed the option at their meetings Tuesday.
The city is considering taking the opportunity to clean up the dump at the end of town, east of the intersection of Phyleon Drive and East Dodge Street.
The council gave staff direction to look into ways to pay for their share of the project and to talk with residents near the affected area.
Under the MPCA's offer the city's cost would be limited to getting the old garbage to the county landfill. It would save money by avoiding tipping fees at this time but would still spend about $150,000 just getting the waste to the landfill.
The cost estimate is very rough at this time because the concept was just brought up.
Councilman Keith Erickson said the timing might be right. "I can see why it'd be smart if we have the opportunity to clean it up, because if there's stuff under there, weÕll fix it now instead of 20 or 30 years out."
Council member Jim Kirchhofer said that cleaning up the abandoned pit now might avoid being forced to clean it up later at a higher cost. And considering the location of the pit near the city's well field, replacing those due to pollution would be an extraordinary cost.
City Administrator Matt Hylen said, "Can we say in my lifetime something will be found in our water supply? I hypothesize that the answer could be yes."
The MPCA is allowing 40,000 cubic yards of waste, which would take up to 1,500 semi trailer loads to fill.
The city is considering studying the volume and contents of the pit even if it doesn't take the MPCA's offer to dispose of them.
On the county side, the Rock County Board of Commissioners owns what is known as Kapperman Pit, behind Rock County Co-Op Oil and off Hatting Street, because it is tax-forfeited property.
At the County Board meeting no action was taken, which essentially stops the issue from continuing.
The county would save money by avoiding tipping fees at this time but would still spend about $150,000 just getting the waste to the landfill.
If Kapperman Pit were opened, materials would have to be disposed of properly and, in the process, if more pollutants were found, the county would have to spend money to get rid of those.
To most people's knowledge, the old Kapperman landfill contains mostly demolition material. Previous tests haven't shown high levels of pollutants.