Landfill Task Force meeting postponed to Feb. 3

A Landfill Task Force meeting scheduled for this afternoon has been postponed until Monday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m. pending additional information.

The task force was expected to provide a formal recommendation today for a waste reduction proposal for City Council to vote on at their next meeting on Feb. 3. This coming after a work session was held Monday with community haulers to discuss options and receive input for reducing waste.

The St. Joseph Sanitary Landfill is facing a capacity crisis and has an estimated 60 days of airspace left before cell 7 hits capacity and the facility is forced into a soft closure by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, meaning the landfill will stay active but local trash companies would be barred from dumping until the situation improves.

While a new plan has not been formally recommended yet, the measure is likely to require sizable waste cuts for all city-licensed businesses regardless of location for 60 days, meaning dozens of haulers will have to absorb the cost of traveling to another landfill.

Drastic waste cuts as high as 35% are needed to buy additional time for the landfill to stay open until capacity concerns alleviate and a new cell is constructed.

Newly-elected city manager Mike Schumacher announced on Monday that bids are now out for an emergency contractor to fast track excavation work for cell 8. Excavation work is estimated to cost $1.1 million and could potentially be complete by the fall.

“They’re mobilizing now. We are also going to talk about cell 9 simultaneously to get that going,” Schumacher said on Monday. “We put a $25,000 incentive if we’re (finished) in 30 days, $5,000 a day penalty if they go past 45, 60 days. So we’re incentivizing them.”

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