In a contentious special meeting on February 3, 2012, the Cook County Board of Commissioners responded to a request for support from R&R Disposal to seek authorization to reopen a demolition waste landfill about 6½ miles up the Gunflint Trail at the former Cook County Gunflint Transfer Station. The board, sans Jim Johnson, was divided over whether to cautiously avoid the possibility of county liability on its former landfill site or to lend its support for a local business endeavor.
The cost of hauling
In an interview with the Cook County News-Herald, Ray Pederson of R&R Disposal and Pederson Disposal said he has kept the cost of hauling garbage and demolition debris as low as possible. He recently had to raise his prices, but he really didn’t want to. “Tremendous amounts” of fossil fuel are being used to transport demolition debris out of the county right now, he said. Fuel prices continue to rise, and Pederson believes that reopening the former demolition landfill would cut customer costs in half. “There’s got to be an answer,” he said, “and we’ve just got to start working smarter.”
“It’s costing just as much to get rid of shingles as it does to buy them new,” Pederson said. If R&R Disposal could operate a demolition landfill, they would create a staging area— endorsed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)—where they would sort every load before putting anything into the ground. Recyclables would be sold, and any hazardous materials would be removed.
Pederson said that the landfill would be fenced, locked, and staffed, and with proper oversight, would be financially successful while bringing costs down for local contractors and everyone else affected by the construction trade. It would also create a couple of full-time jobs.
A letter to the county board, the Grand Marais City Council, and the Grand Portage
Reservation Tribal Council asking for their support states that the site would also be suitable for burning brush. The efforts of the Firewise program to reduce damage from wildfires have resulted in accumulation of large unattended brush piles throughout the county where people are illegally leaving large items of garbage such as computers and couches.
“The demolition site up there is very, very important,” lPederson said.
Recent history
In 1999, the county started the process of closing down its two landfills at the Gunflint
Transfer Station site. One was a “demolition” landfill for construction debris and certain g other kinds of waste and the other was a “mixed solid waste” landfill for regular household waste. The county was able to take advantage of a now unavailable state program called the Closed Landfill
Program in which the state took over management, ongoing testing, and liability for its closed landfill site. If leachate were found to be contaminating the surrounding area, the county would not be held liable for the damage or for cleanup.
The county paid the state $644,726 to do this.
The county continued to operate the site as a transfer station where garbage was dropped off and hauled away.
In 2008, the county sold 15 acres of its site to R&R Disposal, owned by Ray Pederson and Rick Austin, with Detrick
Realty in silent partnership with Austin. The site has not been used as a transfer station since the purchase, however. A mistake in designating the boundaries of the Closed
Landfill Program resulted in R&R Disposal’s transfer station site being included, precluding it from obtaining a permit to operate, according to Pederson.
Pederson’s other business, Pederson Disposal, has been hauling demolition waste from its site east of Grand Marais to a landfill north of Duluth near Cotton.
Dealing with the state
Pederson and Austin have gone to state officials to propose that the county’s former demolition debris site be taken out of the Closed Landfill Program so that it could be reopened.
At the county board meeting, Planning & Zoning
Director Tim Nelson expressed concern that the county would once again be liable for any future contamination claims if the former demolition site were taken out of the Closed Landfill Program. Pederson told the board that R&R Disposal would be able to procure a good insurance policy against such liability, but Nelson maintained that liability could land back in the lap of the county if that policy lapsed or the business folded.
Pederson said they had received a letter from the MPCA stating that there is no reason to be concerned about future liability at the site because it did not contain hazardous materials. Tim Nelson said an MPCA official had told him the county would be liable for up to $3 million if the former site were reopened, even if the site were sold to another party.
Nelson told the Cook County News-Herald that the southwest portion of R&R Disposal’s property looks like it might be a suitable site for a demolition landfill because it appears to be high enough from the water table to meet Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) standards.
Pederson said that when they bought the transfer station site, their understanding from talking with the MPCA was that they would be able to put a demolition landfill on it. A subsequent survey found that the entire property was wetland, he said, including the southwest corner that is not in the Closed Landfill Program.
Legislation was eventually enacted that would allow property to be taken out of a Closed Landfill Program, but a request to take R&R Disposal’s property out was denied by the MPCA because much of it was in what was considered an “area of concern” near the old landfills.
According to Pederson, the governor has the authority to override such decisions by the MPCA. He is very grateful to Hal Greenwood of Grand Marais for approaching Governor Mark Dayton with a request to allow the old demolition site to be reopened and for connecting them with Senator Tom Bakk and Representative David Dill. Bakk and Dill have been very helpful, he said, agreeing to advocate for the reopening of the old demolition landfill. If the site were removed from the Closed Landfill Program, the county would need to agree to sell the property to R&R Disposal.
Pederson indicated that the county, the city, and the Tribal Council all agreed to write letters supporting either the concept of a local demolition landfill or discussions regarding the possibility of such a facility. According to Pederson, “This is a win-win for everyone."
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