Larimer County commissioners approve new landfill site north of Wellington

Larimer County is one step closer to getting its new landfill after county commissioners unanimously approved the proposed site during Monday night's land use hearing.

The new landfill, which will be called the Larimer County North Landfill, will be located at 14855 N. County Road 9, 2 miles west of Interstate 25 and 7 miles north of Wellington. The roughly 600-acre site is expected to open in time to take over operations from the Larimer County Landfill on South Taft Hill Road, which will likely reach capacity in 2024.

The new landfill is part of a regional effort across Northern Colorado to build more infrastructure for solid waste management and diversion. Larimer County North Landfill will open in phases, allowing it to take waste from the current landfill before it reaches capacity. Once this is complete, the new landfill will receive trash only from a central transfer station, which sorts waste into various categories. With two separate operating units, the North Landfill has enough space to take on municipal waste for the next 100 years.

More:A regional landfill diversion plan is behind schedule. What does that mean for Fort Collins?

County addresses resident concerns over landfill site

Residents living near the site who attended Monday night's hearing shared several concerns with commissioners ahead of the site's approval.

One was that the landfill would produce noise into the evening hours. However, the North Landfill will be active only during its operating hours — 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays — and won't be open to the public, according to planning documents.

Residents also raised concerns about increased traffic along County Road 9, water usage, wind speeds and trash outside of the landfill.

Jill Johnson, a resident who lives on County Road 9, said she was worried about increased traffic on the road, which she said already accommodates animal trailers, semitrucks and cyclists.

Jake Wilson, a roadway improvement project manager, spoke to these concerns and said the county will fully pave County Road 9, including the entrance to the facility, which is currently a dirt road, and pave residential driveway bumpers. There will also be 6-foot-wide shoulders added to either side of the road to accommodate large vehicles that will need to make wide turns in and out of the facility.

A majority of the increased traffic along County Road 9 will be from transfer trailers diverting trash from the Taft Hill facility and later, the central transfer station. These trailers will have tarps over the top to make sure waste doesn't blow out, said Duane Penney, Larimer County's director of solid waste.

While the transfer trailers are much bigger vehicles compared with trash collection trucks residents are used to seeing in their neighborhoods, they can hold up to 20 tons of waste, which will ultimately minimize traffic going through Wellington, Penney said.

Residents also expressed concern over high wind speeds in the area that could potentially blow trash from the landfill site onto their properties.

Penney said his team has been monitoring wind speeds on the site for several years and has resources to maintain the site in the event of a wind closure. He reminded residents the landfill is required to close when winds persist at 40 miles per hour for more than an hour or gusts exceed 55 miles per hour. Penney also said the site will have fences to help retain litter and residents can call the site's operations team to report trash at any time.

Residents raised concerns over how the landfill would use and manage water supplies. The North Landfill will not impact the already limited water resources in the community, said Doug DeCesare, the project manager for stormwater management.

The project is designed to accommodate a 100-year storm event and will have systems to capture and store stormwater on site, as this runoff can become a significant pollutant if not managed. The county purchased three water taps for employees and customers to use at the facility and will not take away water resources from the surrounding community, DeCesare said.

After taking the time to address residents' concerns, county commissioners officially approved the site. Before making his recommendation, Commissioner John Kefalas restated the county's goals to limit waste as a whole.

"If we are to be good stewards of our resources, its equally important to minimize the amount of trash going into our landfills."

More:Larimer County's new landfill, recycling and composting sites will change your trash habits

Editor's note: The site approved for Larimer County's new landfill is 2 miles west of Interstate 25. That information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.