Field Office Compliance - Field Activity: Staff Action ID - 99520

Benton County Sanitary Landfill - 310200243
7904 20th Ave Blairstown, IA 52209-____
Benton County

FO 1

Activity Report
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
7/1/2015 All in all, this landfill appears to be in better shape than I have observed it in the few times I have been on site in past years. It appears Mr. Werner is taking steps to bring this facility more consistently in compliance with DNR rules and regulations. It sounds like he has the backing of his new oversite board members as well. I saw no significant areas of concern at the time of this visit. DOUG HAWKER
7/1/2015 On June 30, 2015, I reconned the Benton County Landfill. I met with landfill manager, Erik Werner and recieved a tour of the landfill. Mr. Werner was hired as the new landfill manager back in December. He came from the Tama County landfill. He has been working with the current employees at the Benton landfill to change some of their standard methods of operation in order to improve the overall operation of this facility. There was a large pile of "recycleables" on site on this date. These are scheduled to be removed within the next week or so. The electronics trailer was almost full and was also scheduled for removal within the next several days. Appliances on site were all standing up right and did not appear to be an issue. This facility has not chipped up their piles of tree limbs and branches for almost a year. There are a couple of piles of this type of material, but it doesn't appear that any new material has been brought into the landfill recently. The operators continue to fill the currently operating cell from the top as has been their standard operating procedure for many years. A new cell located to the east of the current cell is scheduled to begin to be constructed soon. It is Mr. Werner's intention that when this new cell is complete, that the operators will learn how to fill the cell "from the bottom" as opposed to filling it "from the top". It is expected that this will allow for better compaction of the solid waste and less blowing litter. Litter did not appear to be an issue on this date. AmeriCorps volunteers had been utilized earlier this spring to completely pick up the land fill and the surrounding properties. A 6' high fence has been partially strung along the north edge of the property to control litter as well. There was no litter hanging on the fence on this date, indicating to me that the operators are becoming much better at addressing litter in a timely manner. DOUG HAWKER
Compliance Tracking
Action Type Date Completed Date Comment
State of Iowa DNR Home Site Policy
Leading Iowans in caring for our natural resources
Version: 2.3.2.24780