By Sara Strong
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is ready to start its summer project at the Rock County landfill.
The state is spending almost $1 million to revamp the county landfill site to improve its safety for the ground, air and water.
Engineer Pete Fuller said to the Rock County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, "Clean water comes into a landfill and comes out contaminated.... We're going to make it like it's a big lawn."
Starting about June 17, the MPCA will supervise contractors in uncovering the current landfill, consolidating different piles of waste and recovering it to specific requirements. The project will take about 106 days to complete.
By doing this, the slope will actually shed water easier, with the help a special membrane cover that repels water. On top of that membrane is.
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Consolidating landfill areas will create two to three acres of reclaimed land that won't have waste of any kind under it.
Another part of the MPCA's work includes a bigger ditching system to keep water flowing around, instead of through the landfill.
Fuller said the ditching system now is close to adequate, but during times of heavy water flow, it's too small.
The county's landfill is actually at a decent rating for safety risks, but a state program in 1992 puts all closed landfills under the control of the state. That amounts to about 108 landfills.
Rock County's landfill rating is C-16. The "C" falls within an A to D range - A signifying greatest environmental threat and D meaning the least. The "16" is another rating system using numbers between 0 and 100. In that case, 100 signifies the greatest threat.
Along with water issues, the MPCA is taking steps to prevent any methane gas from spreading from the site to the ground or air.
Methane is produced in decomposition and is an explosive gas that seeps through the soil and can damage crops or enter homes through foundations.
A venting system will be installed in the new landfill mound to prevent this from happening.
Even though Rock County's landfill is being managed by the state now, it was in compliance with laws at the time it was actively used and isn't necessarily harming the environment in its current state, according to the MPCA.