This week, a city focus group was presented with a plan for a regional landfill site, privately operated, and being built in a rural area well removed from the current city dump, which sits close to residential properties and amid south Minot property expected to be in demand for future development.

While there was no debate yet on the specifics, it is clear that there is support for options other than the proposed expansion of the existing dump – a prospect that lost much of its fiscally responsible appeal when its anticipated useful life span addition slipped to 40-70 years.

Still, multiple perspectives do have merit. There is no no-brainer here. The city’s original plan to expand the south Minot site ran afoul of neighboring property owners and Trinity Hospital, which is building its new state-of-the-art facility nearby. Those complaints make pefect sense, even though the city maintains – most likely accurately – that other options are far more costly and that a new, regional site would take more time than the anticipated life expectancy of the current dump. It’s a bit of a Catch-22.

Another reality is that no solution is going to end the dispute forever. Human tendency toward the “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) principle is simply too strong. Even those who acknowledge the need for such things as landfills, drug treatment center, electrical plants, etc., don’t want them in their neighborhoods. There will always be a better location, which then infringes on other people’s concerns. It’s universal. Ask New England residents about their affection for wind energy, for example. Strong support. But when presented with offshore wind farms… so much for support. Now, if the wind farms were in “flyover country,” you can bet the support in New England would have been maintained. Meanwhile, other northern states are taking advantage of greedy politicians and lax zoning laws to deport its human waste to the South.

This isn’t just a local problem. Recycling has not been the answer so far some hoped it would. Other technological solutions are fascinating and in development, but are still years away.

So, how does NIMBY affect the idea of a regional landfill in or around Ward County, and in a deep rural area? Because landfills are built for long-term use and can one really assume no development near a potential new landfill? Will those residents then be silent a century or so from now when a new expansion is called for? Probably not.

The city and stakeholders are encouraged to take all concerns under consideration, and all parties must accept that there is no perfect answer. Stripped of illusions and the childish tendency toward absolutes will result in a better dialogue and best possible – albeit temporary – plan of action.