Construction debris drives landfill revenue

Almost a third of the waste brought to the Flathead County Landfill last year was construction debris fueled by large projects such as the demolition of Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.

“It was a good year for solid waste,” county Public Works Director Dave Prunty told the county commissioners this week. “The bigger projects are a shot in the arm. CFAC has been a big piece of that puzzle for the last year and a half. They’ll hit us big for a while.”

The landfill disposed of 119,179 tons of waste during the fiscal year from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016. That’s an increase of 12.4 percent over the previous fiscal year, according to the 2016 solid waste annual report.

A total of 82,207 tons of mixed waste was put in the landfill last year, of which 47 percent was disposed of by commercial haulers. Another 12 percent came from municipal haulers, 11 percent from private citizens and 30 percent from green-box container sites.

Construction debris totaled 34,921 tons.

The landfill diverted 1,276 tons of brush; however, the biomass agreement with F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. ended in September 2015, leaving the Solid Waste District with no outlet for the material, the annual report stated. A total of 960.7 tons of brush was landfilled until an agreement was made with Montana Mulching. Subsequently, Montana Mulching chipped and hauled 986.6 tons of material to its facility.

Valley Recycling, which hauls and processes recyclable materials collected at the Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Creston and Somers container sites and the landfill, collected 661 tons of recyclables during the last fiscal year.

Solid Waste District revenues for the 2016 fiscal year were $7.3 million. Revenue is derived from several sources, including residential and commercial refuse assessments (the solid waste fee on property tax bills); tipping fees; white goods, battery and oil recycling; investment earnings; transfers from the landfill expansion and land purchase trust accounts.

Commercial customers pay a pay-as-you-go tipping fee of $31.05 per ton. Businesses are charged the annual assessment with a multiplier based on the volume of waste they produce and report to the district in a biennial volume study performed by the district.

Revenues for the previous fiscal year were just over $10 million, but included $3.3 million in transfer money that was used to purchase properties near the landfill.

Expenditures for fiscal 2016 totaled $8.5 million, compared to $10.6 million the previous year.

The report noted the landfill gas system has operated well over the last year. About 260 million standard cubic feet of landfill gas were removed from the landfill and burned at the gas-to-energy facility owned and operated by Flathead Electric Cooperative. The facility produces power from the landfill gas that is generated from decomposing waste.

Currently the system is producing about 1.4 megawatts per hour, or, on average, energy to power 1,400 homes in Flathead County.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.