Agenda - Council - 09/13/1982 - Special

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'1 Council's Solid Waste Mana~ement~Development Guide/PolicS Plan were enumerated. Each criterion was rated as to whether it represented a high, moderate or low restriction on a site's ability to sustain a landfill with minimum environmental degradation. I I Exclusion criteria included steep slopes, surface water, floodplains, wetlands, groundwater near the surface, or areas of the existing following land uses: airport, residential, industry and highways. On a county-wide basis, resources were then mapped to show areas to be excluded, those highly limited, moderately limited and slightly limited, as well as areas believed acceptable. I I I I I I I I I I I I This information was used as a first-level or coarse screening. Large areas of the county shown as generally exhibiting less limitation were then singled out for more detailed evaluation. Primary and secondary search areas were identi- fied encompassing virtually all of the central part of the county. The siting criteria were again applied to the search areas based on more detailed information. Existing and platted residential development was elim- inated, as were poorly drained soils, highly productive agricultural soils, parks and areas in or near water bodies. This phase of the siting effort ~esulted in identification of 15 possible search areas. In addition, the Ram- sey site was added following a demonstration that it satisfied adopted county criteria for expansion of existing landfills. Based on public input at an informational meeting held in April 1981, two additional sites were identified. Each site was characterized with respect to residential development, soils, parks, surface water, agriculture and other pertinent factors. Reduction in the number of sites to the complement specified by the WMA was accomplished..by~.~.-~--.~ Anoka County board action, based on the recommendations and deliberations of,~ the county's Health Board and Environmental Services Committee. It is not apparent that there are additional satisfactory candidate sanitary landfill sites in Anoka County. This is due to both environmental and land use factors. All but the northwestern townships of the county are within the Anoka sand plain. The risk of contaminating the surficial groundwater that exists in this geomorphic area was recognized by both the Council's sludge ash landfill siting effort and the county's site search. The Council's work excluded the sand plain areas due to soils permeability. In the northwestern townships, the Council did identify an alternate sludge ash site. The site was not certified by the MPCA because adequate groundwater monitoring in that area is not possi- ble. A serious lack of access meeting safety standards for the type and volume' of traffic generated by a large landfill also makes this an unsuitable landfill search area. Recognizing that serious environmental limitations would exist for any site in the sand plain, the county's siting efforts concentrated on minimizing land use conflicts. Consistent with Council landfill siting criteria sites were sought with access to major haul routes, minimizing conflict with residential or com- mercial development. The preliminary information available on these search 'areas not submitted as candidate sites does not support a finding of suitabil- ity. As a class exercise, a graduate geology class at the University of Minne- sota carried out a similar siting effort and was unable to identify additional search areas. The W~A does enable the Council to reduce the number of sites in a county's inventory if it finds that other satisfactory sites do not exist. Constraints on disposal of demolition waste are less strict and it is likely that the county could identify additional sites for demolition' debris disposal, if necessary. 13