Moorcroft hits snag with C&D pit

HDR Engineering has been contracted by the Town of Moorcroft to specifically pursue proper permitting closure of the now-defunct landfill. Engineer Heath Turbiville reported the most recent findings last week, as HDR begins that process.

The construction and debris (C&D) pit currently available to the public is bringing in approximately 20 tons a month; however, according to Turbiville, the tonnage required to “break even” is 200 ton monthly.

Turbiville judges the annual intake the new cell would generate could be approximately $17,000 with the present 20 tons a month, “Not much if you stay at that level.”

Emphasizing the point, Mayor Ben Glenn stated to a query from Councilman Bob Stewart, “That has to be our goal. If we’re going to maintain it and keep it, we have to have a huge increase in tonnage.”

Glenn also asked Turbiville if this increase is realistic and a “sustainable number for Crook County to maintain”?

Turbiville responded, “Well, that’s where it’s a little bit of an unknown because we haven’t been there before. I think that if you could get some individuals to bring in some of that waste, you could probably get there.”

Public Works Director Cory Allison opined, “It would be nice if we could ride it all the way through summer and see what we have, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

To this end, the body directed Turbiville to seek avenues with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that will allow the C&D pit to remain open through this year, providing the town actual data regarding possible increases in tonnage.

However, if the C&D pit does ultimately close, it could pose an additional problem for the town.

“Part of the construction of the C&D pit was that the dirt removed from [it] would then go to the cap on the closure of the existing cell,” Turbiville said.

If, then, council decides to forego the new pit, the estimated cost of around $1 million for the closure will rise.

The engineer gave a possible financial scenario: “With a 45% grant, looking at Rural Development funding as a 40-year loan at 2%, your cost per ton for the construction was $13 per ton and that’s just for the construction – not the operating.”

The DEQ’s Casper office will also be talking with the mayor and his council in the near future, according to Turbiville, “as far as funding on the C&D pit, to see if maybe you can get enough grant money to make it more of a viable option”.

According to Turbiville, another possible income source, though in the future, is the federal infrastructure funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

“There’s some potential for high principal forgiveness and so if that came in, that changes things a lot,” he said.

So, again, the governing body faces a crossroads. If the town cannot gain the needed increase in tonnage coming into the C&D cell every month, the only realistic choice appears to be a full area closure – and there is cost even to that.

Councilman Dale Petersen asked for clarification of this point: “If we choose not to do a C&D pit…and just go with full closure, do we still have expense from the town’s side?”

Turbiville answered, “You will still have monitoring costs for the fore seeable future, but if you were able to get a C&D pit going and get enough waste in so that you made money, it could help take care of that monitoring.”

Regardless of whether or not the town builds a new cell, Turbiville advised, “They’re going to make you add two wells, no matter what…I think they were in the $10-$15,000 range for a well.” However, he guessed the site closure would take care of some of that initial cost.

The town had previously invited several companies to use the current C&D cell at the Moorcroft site, but most turned the offer down as they would be responsible for separating their own garbage.

The council now invites all Crook County businesses and private residents to dump their non-household waste in the C&D cell at Moorcroft’s former landfill. The list of acceptable items is extensive, according to Mayor Glenn.

“Literally, it is everything, but they don’t want municipal waste. Anything that comes out of your kitchen, they can’t take, but they can take a couch or a chair,” he said

People are encouraged to check out the list on the town site or just call town hall, where Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Schneider will be happy to talk to them.