LAWTON MUNICIPAL LANDFILL
OKLAHOMA CITY – The City of Lawton is taking steps to correct environmental issues that resulted in a state mandate to prevent trash from blowing out of the municipal landfill.
The City Council endorsed an ordinance 7-0 Tuesday night that will triple the landfill gate fee to $3 in 30 days. Two-thirds of the proceeds from the increased fee will be used by the 11-member Lawton Enhancement Trust Authority (LETA) to finance litter abatement operations at the landfill “and along travel routes that are used to haul solid waste to the landfill,” the ordinance specifies. The sanitary landfill is located south of Lawton off 11th Street and encompasses 180 acres, of which 80 acres are currently used for trash disposal cells, Public Works Director Larry Wolcott said.
The other third of the revenue will be divided equally among the city’s “ward accounts” to be used for making improvements to infrastructure in each of the city’s eight wards, the ordinance decrees. Those capital projects could include streets and/or sidewalks, drainage structures, park improvements, or collection of bulk solid waste at properties within the city limits that do not have active utility accounts. (The ward accounts were created 16 months ago, and to date each ward has collected “just under $5,788,” said Tiffany Vrska, the city’s community relations director.)
The rate hike may generate approximately $120,000 per year. Wolcott told the council that “just over 37,000 trips” were made to the city dump in Fiscal Year 2019, so the existing $1 landfill gate fee generated “roughly $40,000, ballpark,” this past year.
LOAD COVERING DEBATED
The ordinance also imposes a $25 fee for unsecured loads of solid waste transported to the landfill. As originally written, the ordinance would have required all refuse transported to the dump on any city street or alley to be completely secured and covered, as with a tarp, to ensure that no debris could “fall, sift, leak, or otherwise escape” from the vehicle or trailer. Councilman Jay Burk objected to requiring all loads to be covered. “I don’t want it (trash) to end up on a side road near the landfill or in somebody’s yard,” he said. Requiring commercial haulers to cover their loads is understandable, Burk said. But some residents travel to the landfill just once a year “or maybe once every five years,” and “most people don’t have big tarps,” he said. For a resident, having a load tied down and secure should be sufficient.
Councilman Caleb Davis concurred. Compelling residents traveling to the landfill to ensure that their load of refuse cannot “sift, leak, or otherwise escape” is tantamount to excessive regulation, he maintained. City-owned garbage trucks “leak all over the city,” yet they aren’t required to be covered, Davis noted. “There’s no one answer,” said Interim City Attorney Bob Ross. A private citizen hauling broken concrete to the dump shouldn’t have to cover the debris with a tarp, he said, but loose refuse such as leaves and grass clippings “should be secured to the point it won’t come off” a vehicle or trailer. “What you have to do depends on what you’re carrying.”
The council amended the ordinance to require debris transported to the landfill by individuals to be secured but not covered. A consent order between the City of Lawton and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) that was filed on Nov. 13 stipulates that landfill customers are to be advised to “cover their loads to prevent blowing litter...”
LANDFILL DAMAGES VEHICLES
Barry Beauchamp, former superintendent of Lawton Public Schools, addressed the council in behalf of Gill’s Container Service, Miller Enterprises, and Horn Sanitation and Recycling, all of Lawton. He expressed concern about “the rapid rate” at which the landfill gate fee has grown. The city previously charged no admission fee; then imposed a $1 gate fee on Aug. 22, 2017; and will boost the fee to $3 in mid-January 2020. Gill’s “makes 658 trips to the landfill” each month and thus pays “just under $8,000 per year” in landfill gate fees, Beauchamp said. The new rate will boost those annual charges to approximately $24,000. In addition, Beauchamp said, Gill’s paid the City of Lawton $897,000 in “tipping fees” in 2018, “and we’ll exceed $900,000 in 2019,” for the thousands of tons of solid waste it has off-loaded at the landfill. Gill’s accounts for 8,000 of those 37,000 landfill visits Wolcott mentioned, Beauchamp said.
Commercial users are charged $36.25 per ton of solid waste dumped at the landfill, city records reflect; that charge includes a $1.25/ ton DEQ assessment. “The dump makes money for the city,” said City Manager Michael Cleghorn. “We understand the directive” from the ODEQ, Beauchamp said. “We have to comply with that order.” Nevertheless, commercial solid-waste haulers contend the city needs to improve access at the landfill because the road gets muddy and becomes nearly impassable, damaging their vehicles. The city is “not investing in the facility to improve the infrastructure,” Beauchamp said.
Burk and Davis both expressed concerns that residential customers have received flat tires and front- end damage to their vehicles while at the landfill. “The drive-in and the drive out are horrible,” Burk said. “We have got to get a better place for people to dispose of their waste.” Perhaps the city could construct a concrete-paved area where “roll-off boxes” could be placed for use by residential customers, Cleghorn said.
Burk suggested tapping the city’s emergency fund to improve access to the landfill. That fund contains “about $3 million,” Councilman Dwight Tanner said. Councilman Randy Warren said the issues with the sanitary landfill are matters the City Council has chosen to “push on down the road” for the last 20 years.