Garfield County landfill staff presented a semiannual operational update and an overview of pending state air-quality rulemaking that could significantly increase landfill costs and local tipping fees.
Deb Fiscus, landfill presenter, walked commissioners through operational metrics, including year-to-date tonnage increases, revenues from metal recycling, tire and e-waste collections, septage and the upcoming pond cleanout. She reported revenues for 2025 up from 2024 (for example, metal recycling revenue rose from tens of thousands in 2023'2024 to $73,172 on 911 tons in 2024; year-to-date 2025 revenues were higher) and that the landfill had one staffing vacancy that would be filled in coming weeks. She described ongoing maintenance tasks including cleaning three ponds and options for doing that work in-house or hiring hydrovac services at an estimated $200'$300 per hour.
The presentation turned to a detailed discussion of proposed Air Quality Control Commission Regulation 31, a draft regulation to control methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills. County staff said Garfield County had gained party status in the rulemaking and joined a multi-county coalition to prepare a prehearing statement. "Garfield County gained party status into this regulation for to provide comment back in, May around May 14," a staff member said, and commissioners delegated Commissioner Will to speak on the county's behalf at the prehearing conference. Staff said the prehearing conference was scheduled for the 17th (the prehearing statement meeting) and that the commission may continue the full hearing to December.
Landfill staff and outside counsel outlined the key cost drivers in the draft regulation: biocover (an organic intermediate cover) estimated by one consultant at roughly $60,000'$80,000 per acre to install, the requirement to install gas-collection and enclosed-flare systems for some landfills (capital costs staff estimated in the low millions to several million dollars depending on site), and ongoing monitoring and testing that could add substantial recurring costs. Fiscus summarized the county's midpoint estimates: roughly $3'$4 million in capital to construct required new cells/controls under the new standards, and annual operational costs in the range of $750,000 to $1,000,000 if the county needed a full gas control system.
Staff and the coalition are pushing several technical changes in an alternate proposal, including raising the surface-emissions action threshold from 200 parts per million (ppm) to 500 ppm (the EPA guidance referenced by coalition members), shortening the lookback period for waste-in-place calculations to 1995 rather than 1987, and changing tonnage thresholds tied to when a collection system is required. Fiscus said a key concern is the availability of compost for biocover: "It's been said that there's not enough compost in the entire state of Colorado to do this for, you know, every landfill that has to do it." She and others warned that requiring enclosed flares can produce greater emissions if operators must supply alternate fuels to keep a flare running at low methane generation rates.
County counsel and outside counsel Chris Kolklecher (Beatty & Wozniak) are coordinating the county's comments. Staff said the coalition currently includes 15 counties and that representatives from Mesa County (Commissioner Cody Davis) and possibly Summit County will join Commissioner Will to make the county's prehearing statement. "There was a pretty good chance we'll see something [adopted]," staff said, "What we want to do is try to affect it such that we can limit the expense and the exposure for the taxpayers of Garfield County to the greatest extent that we can."
Commissioners asked about likely cost impacts and service-life planning. Staff said the landfill's current life without expansion runs to the mid-2040s (about 2044-2045) and that the county has expansion property identified (Langstaff) for future cell construction. Staff also highlighted near-term operational items: pond cleanout bidding, e-waste and metal-recycling events, and that quarterly user-fee payments to the state have risen and may require increasing the landfill's PO later in the year.
No board action was taken; staff requested continued engagement in the rulemaking process and signaled that, depending on the commission's schedule, the coalition may submit a redline alternative or an alternate proposal to the Air Quality Control Commission.