Lake County drops first load of trash into expanded landfill

Officials hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in February to commemorate the first load of trash being dumped into the expanded Lake County Landfill.  

The county undertook a project in 2025 to expand the landfill on Kerr Dam Road to accept household garbage again. The $4.7 million project included Neumann Construction of Kalispell building three seven-acre cells for household trash, along with constructing a scale house.  

For the last 25 years, the county has been shipping household garbage to Missoula, which cost nearly $1 million a year. Now, with these savings, the county can keep fees affordable for residents and pay off the loans taken out for the project, while saving money for the next phase, officials said. 

Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron, Lake County Solid Waste Director Stacey Kintigh, grant writer Billie Lee and members of the Lake County Solid Waste Board played important roles in making this all possible. Barron said during the ribbon-cutting that if everything goes as planned, by the time this cell is full, they will have the funds to pay for the next cell.  

The new cell, which is 8 feet deep, will take about a year to create a base layer of trash about 2 to 4 feet deep. The entire cell is estimated to last the county 12 years, Kintigh said. 

The expansion also comes with state-of-the-art groundwater monitoring wells.  

“It's been a huge benefit for the Lake County residents and for the future,” Kintigh said.  

He reminded residents, however, that they should still bring trash to the Transfer Station or their local sites and not the landfill.

    Lake County Solid Waste director Stacey Kintigh cuts the ribbon to commemorate the first load of trash being dumped in the expanded landfill on Thursday, Feb. 14. (Emily Messer/Leader)

 The first load from the Lake County Transfer Station is dumped into the expanded landfill on Thursday, Feb. 14. (Emily Messer/Leader)

 County officials, solid waste board members, and sanitation staff stand alongside County Commissioner Bill Barron as he explains the benefits the new landfill expansion brings to the county. (Emily Messer/Leader)