City officials are continuing to look at options to manage landfill costs.

During their July 18 work session, commissioners reviewed the first phase of a solid waste study with Lyndsay Lopez.

Lopez is a consultant with Jacobs, the city’s subcontractor on the study, that commissioners approved in April 2022 for a contract with Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc., or AE2S, not to exceed $155,217.

Lopez said they began working on the study in 2022 to evaluate long term options for the city.

Currently, she said the city has 18,591 customers for garbage collection within the city limits, or 84.8 percent of the market.

Republic Services provides garbage collection to 3,333 customers, or 15.2 percent of the market within the city limits, Lopez said.

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The city uses the High Plains Landfill, which is also used by the county and private residents. Republic owns the landfill.

The first phase of the project is looking at the current situation, an initial screening of options, conceptual high level design and initial costs estimates, Lopez told commissioners.

Lopez told commissioners that at this stage, she was presenting the first phase of the study for their review and it was up to them to gauge feasibility and determine next streps.

City officials have been discussing landfill options for several years and Lopez said that in 2017, landfill costs were $25.61 per ton.

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Republic took over the landfill in 2018 and high inflation and disposal costs prompted the city to explore other options through the study process.

In 2023, that cost is $33 per pound, a six percent increase.

The city contracts with Republic Services for use of the landfill and the current contract expires in 2024 with a few options to extend. But the contract comes with automatic inflation factors based on the Consumer Price Index.

The stipulated compensation owed by the city for disposal is a base rate plus an annual escalation of 1 times the consumer price index times the base rate for the preceding year, according to city staff.

The pandemic resulted in an increase in the CPI, and per the February 2022 news release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The all items index rose 7.9 percent for the 12 months ending February. The 12-month increase has been steadily rising and is now the largest since the period ending January 1982.”

The landfill agreement stipulates that the base rate escalation percent increase cannot exceed 7 percent.

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“Thus, the city could be facing significant base rate escalations for disposal in the forthcoming years due to an increasing CPI,” city staff said in April 2022.

In the first two months of 2022, the city took almost the same tonnage of trash to the landfill as all of 1992, public works staff told commissioners in April 2022.

The city’s wastewater treatment plant also takes solid waste to the landfill and those costs have increased since 2017.

Lopez said the study team looked at background data, population and disposal tonnage forecasts for area counties using state solid waste study data.

City staff also reached out to their peers in the region for data, she said.

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She told commissioners that it was important to consider economies of scale because increased tonnage lowers landfill costs and if it’s more than a 45-minute drive to a landfill for collection vehicles, it warrants a transfer station.

Currently, for city collection vehicles, it’s about a 20 minute drive to the landfill, she said.

The city already owns land off North Manchester Road that could be used for a future city landfill. Part of the property is property zoned, the other would need to be rezoned to be used as a landfill, Lopez said.

The study also identified a location for a potential transfer station, which is properly zoned currently, she said.

Lopez said the study team identified eight initial alternatives and narrowed them down to five.

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Those options include maintaining the status quo, privatization through a contract or franchise, a city developed landfill, create a regional waste management authority, or build a new transfer station and use the Lewis and Clark County landfill.

A new landfill would be sized for about a 3-year life cycle with room for growth with a total capacity of 4 million cubic yards, Lopez said.

Building a new city landfill would be an estimated $12.3 million in construction, followed by operation and maintenance costs, Lopez told commissioners.

If commissioners do nothing, landfill costs are estimated to increase to $32 per ton.

With a new city landfill, the rate would likely go to $50.50 per ton, she said.

If there was a new city landfill with no transfer station, the rate would likely increase to $43.50 per ton.

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If a regional waste management authority was established and the city used a landfill elsewhere, the cost is an estimated $40.40 per ton. A waste management agreement using a new city landfill would be $39-$43 per ton, depending on tonnage and using the Lewis and Clark County landfill is an estimated $71.60 per ton, according to the study.

Lopez said the city has a number of feasible options, but all would likely cost more than the current system.

Lopez said the recommendation at the meeting was to maintain current landfill operations and explore disposal options for the biosolids from the wastewater and water treatment plants.

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For the rest of the year, the said city officials should assess the interest of nearby communities in potential use of a new city landfill.

If an additional 50,000 to 100,000 tons per years were secured, officials should determine if they want to further explore a potential new city landfill.

City officials should also carefully review their contract with Republic to identify improvements and negotiate any changes before the current contract expires in December of 2024, Lopez said.

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City Manager Greg Doyon said that since he’s been in Great Falls, past commissions have been hesitant to end city garbage collection services because of the likely increased cost to taxpayers in that case.

Commissioner Joe McKenney said he wondered if they were overreacting to increased landfill costs since the city wouldn’t be immune to inflation if it owned its own landfill.

He said he didn’t commissioners needed to make any immediate decisions related to the landfill.

Commissioner Susan Wolff agreed but said she wanted to look at other options for the biosolid waste from the water and wastewater treatment plants.