Clearwater County continues fight with MPCA over landfill

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

April 3, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

BAGLEY, Minn. -- Clearwater County is in the second round of a bout of undetermined length with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The first round was a decision in favor of the MPCA. The county was able to negotiate a deal to keep its expireless operating permit for a demolition landfill -- for the time being -- and was able to forget half of an assessed $10,000 fine. But the county ultimately is still responsible for other corrective actions demanded in a December MPCA administrative penalty order.

In a moral victory, Clearwater County Environmental Officer Tim Nelson said in January the MPCA agreed to delete a corrective action asking the county to re-apply for a new operating permit for the demolition landfill in the penalty order. In return, the county agreed to hire an engineer to study the landfill and determine its remaining waste capacity and longevity.

In round two, the country is taking another early beating, said Nelson in reference to a MPCA decision about repayment of the unforgivable portion of the county's fine.

According to Nelson, his office and the Clearwater County Board are proposing to spend a portion of the $5,000 unforgivable fine on an environmental project in their county, so the money is assured to be used in an effort to improve the county's environment.

Pollution Control Specialist Roger Rolf, who issued the original December penalty order, said the MPCA is interested, but this is new territory for the MPCA because it has never allowed such a repayment for a penalty order. It has always asked for full payment of the fine.

The new conflict begins with what the MPCA will allow as a qualifiable environmental project, Nelson said Wednesday in an interview at the Clearwater County Courthouse.

In preliminary discussions, Nelson said the county had suggested doing a countywide amnesty cleanup day, in which each township would designate a site where residents could drop off waste such as used tires, old refrigerators and used televisions. The county would then pay for the pick up at those sites.

But according to Nelson, the MPCA said it was not an acceptable project because the county would do the project anyway.

So instead, Nelson said he will propose to the County Board Tuesday a well monitoring project in which the county would pay for the inspection of wells -- located near formerly used city dump sites that have been closed -- for contamination. He said the MPCA has been positive in the early stages toward this project.

The irony, Nelson said, is the MPCA seems more favorable of a project that was more likely to be conducted by the county regardless of the MPCA's OK, than the original proposal of a countywide amnesty pick up.

None of which is humorous to Nelson. After the county was initially encouraged by the MPCA to determine if there was an interest among the townships in an amnesty day, Nelson said the agency denied the project. However, the townships are still interested in the idea, the county may end up doing the amnesty day in addition to another MPCA-demanded project.

Rolf, however, said the MPCA has not even received a proposal as of yet, and the amount of the $5,000 fine the agency would allow the county to use will be determined at the time it sees a proposal.

So, to Nelson, it seems as if round two will be awarded as well to the MPCA.

AS for future rounds, Nelson believes the agency will never quit coming after their landfill's expireless permit -- the last of which exists in the state -- and the county will keep fighting back.