County will close seven dumpsites

Come Jan. 1, seven dumpsites in Boundary County will be closed, leaving residents with three locations and the landfill to take their garbage.

County commissioners also are looking toward a stronger recycling system.

Commissioners decided to close the dumpsites in Porthill, Eastport, Good Grief, Copeland, Turner Hill, Deer Creek and District 15. All of these sites are not manned and illegally dumping is occurring, said Claine Skeen, superintendent for the county solid waste department.

Items have included mattresses, couches, wood, metal, engines, car parts and more.

The Dumpsters will be removed from the seven areas.

The county is permitted to accept 20 tons of garbage per day. The permit could be lost if the limit is not maintained.

 “This process will eliminate the disposal of illegal materials and reduce the daily tonnage by disposing of material at a monitored site or at the landfill,” Skeen said in a news release.

Dumpsites on Deep Creek Road in Naples, on Kootenai Trail Road in Paradise Valley, the junction of highways 1 and 95 in Mt. Hall and the landfill employ personnel to watch what is dumped.

The landfill currently takes in 16 to 17 tons of garbage daily.

“By doing that (closing the unmanned dumpsites and getting rid of illegal dumping), . . . with the site up north, we’ve already extracted 1,000 pounds of recycling material.”

At these locations, resident can recycle newspaper, magazines, office paper, junk mail, No. 1 through 7 plastics, electronics, cardboard, lead batteries, used oil and antifreeze, wood , metal, tires, and glass.

“The more material we extract out of the waste stream, the longer we can keep the Small Community Exemption (the 20-ton limit),” Skeen said in his news release.

“Our main goal is to reduce the daily tonnage, recycle and keep the Small Community Exemption for as long as we can,” Skeen said. “It will be a change, but it will be a good change for our community.”

“Once we lose our exemption and become a transfer station, we will have the extraction process in place and will not pay for recyclable materials to be disposed of,” he continued.

Revenue from recycled material is placed into the next year’s budget. Thus the more revenue that is created through recycling will determine the solid waste fees annually.

Residents in the Bonners Ferry pay $103 to support landfill operations. Residents outside the city pay $123.

For questions contact county commissioners at 267-9835 or the solid waste department at 267-3812