Sherburne County is one of the few counties in the state that has active landfills, and there is always a chance there might be future environmental issues associated with them.

 

Earlier this month, the county discussed a policy that would make sure any future problems with the landfills would not have to be paid for by county residents.

 

Assistant County Attorney Tim Sime said solid waste staff and the county attorney’s office put together a draft policy guiding how the county will deal with the Sherburne County Solid Waste Fund going into the future.

 

The fund is collected from different sources, like fees from landfills, fees from haulers and state surcharges.

 

Last summer, the county settled litigation with landfills by entering into long term host fees. 

 

“During litigation the county was required to dig through where the money in the Solid Waste Fund came from and what it was being spent on,” said Sime.

 

“It was a tedious exercise but it turned out to be very beneficial.”

 

Sime said some of the funds coming in have strings attached - or requirements how the money can be spent. Other sources have no restrictions. He said that was one reason they decided to put together a policy.

 

He said the fund is strong and there are long-term host fee agreements with the landfills, and the county continues to collect the Greater Minnesota Cleanup Fee at $6.66 per ton on municipal solid waste (MSW). 

 

“A lot of money is going to come in. But as we looked at how money is being spent, we realized how large our future obligations are,” he said. “Although we are lean and mean in terms of staffing, it is a large number that will continue to grow.”

 

Sime said the county will continue to have expenses long after the landfills close. 

 

“Elk River Landfill has an agreement with the City of Elk River that they have to close in 2030. We know we’re going to be regulating them at least that long. They also at least have a 30-year post-closure care period,” he said. “The money stops coming in the minute that landfill closes, but your obligations continue for at least 30 years and probably after that.”

 

Sime said the county did a god job negotiating the agreements that are in place now. All the county’s staffing costs and programs like SCORE grants and the Legacy Grant are covered.

 

“We will continue to bring in money, but it pales in comparison if you project out 30 to 50 years,” he said. “It projects out fine. The county will be fine if all works well but it will take constant monitoring.”

 

He said the county has to  continue to work with the landfills and be vigilant that the legislature doesn’t take away the Greater Minnesota Cleanup Fee.

 

“We are mindful that all is well, but it can easily tilt the other way. If the legislature decides to take the Greater Minnesota Cleanup Fee and give it to the PCA, it falls apart,” he said. “We’ve built those contingencies into the host fee agreements so we can react if that happens. But we need to be mindful that while these landfills are here, the rights we have currently need to be protected.”

 

Administrator Steve Taylor said it’s a case of what’s called the SWOT Analysis (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat).

 

“To summarize, there’s a legislative threat, litigation threat, non-prudent spending threat and calamity threat,” he said. “Those are the four things that will turn the apple cart upside down.”

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing used Anoka County as an example of Sherburne County’s future expenses. They have no active landfills but still have a large staff monitoring their closed landfills.

 

“That expense goes on and there’s nothing coming in,” he said. 

 

“I’m really glad you looked at the costs and cash flow because understanding how that works makes us think differently as well,” he said. “If we aren’t careful with this fund, we eventually need to be a county that has MSW in order to keep our cash flow going. We could put ourselves in a position where we couldn’t afford for it to go away.”

 

Sime said the policy is a guide to follow so that doesn’t happen.

 

“The direction we’ve gotten from this board is, the cost of these landfills that we bear as a county for the benefit of the Metro area should not fall back on Sherburne County taxpayers,” he said.

 

The final draft of the policy will be presented for approval at a future board meeting in the next few weeks.