Larimer County ceases talks with potential landfill operator: What it means for the future - Coloradoan
Thomas Clayton
Larimer County ceases talks with potential landfill operator: What it means for the future
Pat Ferrier
In an about-face from January, Larimer County has decided it will no longer seek a private partner to build and operate its new landfill north of Wellington.
Larimer County ceased negotiations with Republic Services Group at the end of August after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on how to proceed. County officials and Republic declined to disclose the areas of disagreement.
Cutting off negotiations will not derail the planned closing of the existing landfill on Taft Hill Road or the opening of a new 600-acre landfill at 14855 N. County Road 9, 2 miles west of Interstate 25 and 7 miles north of Wellington in 2025, county officials said. Nor will it affect Fort Collins' contract with Republic to provide trash services to city residents beginning in 2024.
It does mean the county will build a "modified transfer station" that's smaller than anticipated at the current landfill site.
The county will spend about $25 million to get the new landfill fully operational; an additional $10 million to $15 million for the transfer station; and up to $9 million for improvements to County Roads 9 and 70, including a new traffic signal at Taft Hill and Trilby roads that's already operational.
Larimer County Commissioners approved a nonbinding memorandum of understanding in January to begin negotiations with Republic Services to build and operate the landfill. Republic, which purchased Fort Collins-based Gallegos Sanitation in 2021, was to assume all of the costs to design, build, fund, operate and eventually close the landfill at the end of its life — estimated to be about 100 years — and a central transfer station for a minimum of 20 years.
The county would have paid for all improvements to the site, including roads, and all country landfill employees were to be offered jobs at Republic.
The public-private partnership would help the county devote its time and resources to diverting more material from the solid waste stream, commissioners said in approving the MOU. The county and Republic agreed in principle on a goal of diverting 50% of waste from the landfill by 2030, according to the memorandum.
"The reason we were looking for a private partner was to help with the investment in the new facility," Assistant County Manager Laurie Kadrich said. It would have enabled the county to invest more in its diversion strategy. "Now, we'll reverse that and invest in the infrastructure needed for a transfer station and landfill and look for partners" for its diversion programs.
As of Sept. 22, the county began negotiating with four possible partners — A1-Organics, Biochar Now, Plasma Development and Anaergia — to develop diversion programs including wood and forestry waste, composting and organic materials processing, said Duane Penney, the county's solid waste manager.
The solid waste department will continue to support current recycling center operations, making improvements when possible and expanding the current methane collection system to develop a source for beneficial use of methane gas, the county said. The department will also continue to evaluate anaerobic digesters to process/convert commercial food waste into renewable natural gas and other technologies to support diversion, recycling, and conversion of waste materials to create a useful form of energy.
Some municipal partners, including Fort Collins and Loveland, had raised concerns about partially privatizing the landfill, fearing it would take away local control.
Fort Collins City Council member Kelly Ohlson, who also sits on the county's Solid Waste Policy Advisory Council, said he "was not disappointed" negotiations with Republic had ceased. "I never liked the idea for the part of the agreement that was for 100 years. That's a little long for me to turn something that I believe should be in the public sector over to a private company."
The council, which will meet in October has been kept up to date that the county and Republic had not reached an agreement, Kadrich said. "Our commitment to them was when we got a draft contract, we would share it. We were never at a point where we had a contract, so they knew things were not going as quickly as we had hoped."
Ohlson credited the county for walking away from an agreement and saying, "this isn't working out ... it's not a good enough arrangement."
Trash-to-energy "is not as good as it sounds for all kinds of reasons," he said. "It leads to less diversion, reducing, reusing and recycling because you have to feed the beast and provide enough trash ... or pay the company that runs the program. You have to have enough (waste) to make it financially viable and that requires a lot of waste. I will personally oppose that with every fiber of my being."
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
| Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor W: (970) 498-7005 tcla...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org |