Dunn County transfer station would need DNR inspection for contamination before being sold
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By LeAnn R.Ralph
MENOMONIE — The former Dunn County transfer station for solid waste and recycling on state Highway 29 west of Menomonie would have to be inspected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for contamination before the property could be sold.
The DNR would conduct a Phase 2 inspection of the property to determine any visible evidence of contamination and then take a groundwater sample, said Scott Nabbefeld, Dunn County facilities and parks manager, at the March 27 meeting of the Dunn County Facilities Committee.
If any suspicious areas were identified, then soil samples would be taken to determine if there is any soil contamination, he said.
If contamination is found, then the contamination would be reported to the DNR, and Dunn County would be responsible for cleaning up the contamination, Nabbefeld said.
If no contamination is found, then the DNR report stating there is no contamination could be used to support the lease or sale of the property, he said.
If Dunn County leases out the transfer station, any future contamination of the property would be the responsibility of Dunn County as the property owner, Nabbefeld said.
If the property is sold, and any future contamination is discovered, the contamination would need to be linked back to the solid waste and recycling activities in order for Dunn County to be responsible for the clean up, he said.
History
Kris Korpela, Dunn County manager, presented a history of the Dunn County solid waste and recycling program to the facilities committee.
The transfer station was built in 1991 and had a lifespan of 15 years, she said.
Dunn County extended the life of the transfer station to 30 years before the solid waste and recycling program was closed down in 2021, Korpela said.
The transfer station occupies a 10-acre parcel, and in February of 2021, the market value of the transfer station property was appraised at $300,000, she said.
In March of 2021, the estimate to repair the transfer station to bring it up to code was $213,000, Korpela said.
The concerns about the transfer station included stormwater management, which was not designed to state standards. The transfer station needs proper ditching and a retention pond, she said.
In March of 2017, the Dunn County Board approved purchasing an additional 20 acres next to the transfer station from Justin Merritt for $175,000.
The additional land was purchased to have available for eventually building a new transfer station.
The $300,000 appraisal for the transfer station does not include the additional 20 acres.
In November of 2020, when it was too late to remove it from the ballot, voters failed a $1 million referendum question for solid waste and recycling that would have been recurring for five years, resulting in $5 million to build a new transfer station and make other improvements to the program.
Withdrawal
In the early fall of 2020, member municipalities were told the per capita fee charged by Dunn County would increase from $23 to $60 or $80 or maybe as much as $100, but that the exact amount of the increase would not be known until the end of the year.
The member municipalities could not wait until the end of the year to find out what the solid waste and recycling per capita would be since they had already started developing their budgets for 2021 and would need to adopt those budgets in November.
For those municipalities that paid the solid waste and recycling per capita out of the property tax levy, there was no way to increase the property tax levy to cover the increased per capita fee because of the state’s levy limit.
The majority of the municipalities in Dunn County decided to withdraw from county solid waste and recycling and form their own Responsible Units for recycling.
State law requires every municipality to be its own Responsible Unit for recycling or must be a member of another Responsible Unit.
The Colfax RU, which includes the Village of Colfax and the Towns of Colfax, Grant, Otter Creek, Tainter and Wilson along with the Village of Elk Mound and the Towns of Elk Mound and Spring Brook, charged a per capita of $28.06 for solid waste and recycling for the first three years, and then for this year, was able to reduce the per capita to a little over $25.
Meeting
Nabbefeld said he’d had a meeting set up with the DNR about the Phase 2 inspection prior to the March 27 meeting, but then the snowstorm arrived, and then it was impossible to visually assess any possible soil contamination with snow on the ground.
The DNR had already conducted a Phase I inspection when the transfer station was closed down.
When the weather improves, another meeting will be set up with the DNR so the committee can receive information about the potential cost of any site cleanup, Nabbefeld said.
Barbara Lyon, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the facilities committee, asked if the clean up cost could be paid from the remaining balance in the solid waste and recycling fund.
Earlier in the meeting, Korpela had reported that the solid waste and recycling fund currently has a balance of $430,452.
The money in the fund could be used for clean up, or for whatever else the county board voted to use it for, Korpela said.
Ann Vogl, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the facilities committee, asked if it would be possible to sell the transfer station “as is.”
The transfer station could be sold “as is,” but the buyer would have to be willing to take on the responsibility of any contamination at the site, Nabbefeld said.
If any contamination were discovered in the future, and it was definitely linked back to the Dunn County solid waste and recycling program, the responsibility for the cleanup would come back to Dunn County, he said.
If the transfer station were leased, the county would want to know the baseline of contamination, Vogl said.
If Dunn County leased the transfer station to someone else, then the county would definitely be liable for the contamination as the land owner, Nabbefeld said.
