first on decorahnews.com: Winneshiek County Landfill is about to open a $6 million addition

County supervisors, Winneshiek County Solid Waste Agency board members and others toured the landfill construction project recently

A couple of years ago, after the Winneshiek County Landfill had its annual inspection by the Iowa DNR, it was told by the DNR that the current landfill near Frankville Road had "only six years of life left."

At that point, the landfill could have faced some unattractive choices—shutting down the landfill at the end of its life and having garbage haulers drive to another landfill, perhaps as far away as Waterloo, or building a new and expensive landfill at a new site in Winneshiek County.

Fortunately, the Winneshiek County Solid Waste Agency had been building up its financial reserves, so it had $9.9 million in funds saved.  The Iowa DNR required $5.7 million of those funds to be saved for covering costs if the landfill did close, but that still left $4.2 million.  The board that supervises the landfill decided it would spend $6 million to make improvements to the existing landfill—an expensive proposition, but much less expensive than the alternatives.  Landfill operator TJ Schissel says the new facilities "save everybody money."

As soon as the Iowa DNR issues a permit—which could come any day now—the Winneshiek County Landfill will begin operating new facilities that could keep the present site in operation for as many as 25 years. 

We'll take a look at those facilities in our next story, which will be posted Wednesday.