Landfill near Lovell to remain open

The North Big Horn Landfill, which was announced last September to be in the process of shutdown, will remain open.
Gary Grant, manager of the landfill, said that a decision has been reached to keep the landfill open for the foreseeable future. The landfill is located 2.5 miles out of Lovell and is a 71-acre facility.
Originally, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Solid and Hazardous Waste planned to close down the facility and supplement the cost of sending garbage to a transfer station, Grant said. The landfill is required to cover their garbage every day and was running out of dirt to cover the garbage with.
The initial decision to close was based on a study by the state that found it would be best to close some landfills. The state was going to cover 75% of the costs associated with the transfer station, so the board decided to move forward with the closure.
But eventually, the DEQ worked with the landfill to give another option besides shutting down, a new plan that would allow the current landfill location to stay open.
“The DEQ came to us. He said you have done a good job of managing costs. You haven’t raised rates in quite a long time,” Grant said. “But if you start transferring your garbage your rates are going to have to go up.”
The DEQ came back with the new plan because they did some more decision making and found keeping the landfill open was actually the most economical option, he said. In order to deal with the lack of dirt, the garbage is planned to be covered in an adhesive spray.
Grant does not expect there to be an interruption in garbage services when the transition to using the adhesive spray to cover the landfill is implemented.