While he’s been frustrated about the debris in the past, he said this year so far has been the worst it’s ever been.

“It isn’t right,” Mikkelson said. “I will be hiring an attorney if it doesn’t stop, and I will do whatever it takes to put a stop to their permit. Unless they do something about controlling it, I will go after their dumping permit. I’ve been more than nice, but I’m all done being nice.”

An unusual amount of wind this spring has combined with the rising height of the landfill’s active waste cell to aggravate the garbage scattering that normally occurs.

“Just picking the garbage, that’s a Band-Aid. That’s not fixing the problem,” said Mikkelson, whose family members have picked up garbage themselves. “They don’t have a right to contaminate other people’s property.”

Jill Schramm/MDN The Minot City Landfill’s Cell 6 rises in elevation as it gets closer to becoming full. An orange portable fence is used to help contain debris and a lower level, barbed wire fence catches additional debris.

Landowner John Coughlin of Minot said he asked the city this past week to pick up trash on his property, leased for radio towers, to enable his crew to mow. Trash has started to accumulate again since a community group cleaned up in May, he said.

The littering was significant this spring on properties around the landfill – to the point that a community cleanup day was held to help out.

Coughlin’s frustration is that Minot’s landfill neighbors regularly deal with litter.

“Other cities don’t seem to have this problem, so there must be a solution that the city can implement,” he said.

Diana Trussell, solid waste program manager with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, said litter from North Dakota’s municipal solid waste landfills isn’t uncommon. The state has 13 MSW landfills.

“Landfills are required to pick it up. They really do try to stay on top of it,” she said. “That’s really what we say is their last line of defense. The idea is to really deal with it before it becomes wind-borne.”

Strategies for avoiding wind-blown waste are to work in sheltered areas on windy days or shut down altogether. Waste also can be compacted immediately after deposit into cells. Landfills use portable litter fences and barbed wire to enclose their properties in attempts to capture blowing debris.

State inspectors were in Minot last week, and although there was some off-site debris due to high winds, landfill crews were picking up the litter, Trussell said.

A couple of landfills in the state cease dumping during sustained winds of 25 mph or greater, but the Minot landfill does not. Jason Sorenson, assistant public works director for the City of Minot, said it is an option, although it wouldn’t be a popular one with private contractors and others who rely on the landfill.

Another option is baling garbage, and there have been North Dakota landfills that have used that technique. Currently, only the Jamestown landfill bales, according to the state. Minot has not looked at the option due to the expense, Sorenson said.

Incineration of waste before disposal also is costly, time consuming to permit because of air quality concerns and requires adjustments for different types of waste, he added.

The Minot landfill uses other mitigation measures, including fencing. The landfill has two rows of portable 16-foot-tall fences. The first one is located near the active garbage cell to capture airborne waste and the second is about 70 feet away to try to catch waste the first fence misses. Haulers are directed to deposit waste upwind from the fences. Some neighbors have suggested higher fences, such as the permanent fences used by some golf courses to keep golf balls on the property. Sorenson said a higher portable fence would be problematic given the dynamics of load and wind force on a structure of that type.

Sorensen said landfill crews spend more than two weeks each spring addressing the winter accumulation of waste that spreads to nearby properties. Afterwards, the landfill typically utilizes Wednesdays for a weekly clean up, especially on the landfill property to prevent any loose waste from spreading to neighboring properties, he said. Often, they will pick up garbage a second day during the week to control potential problems.

Crews respond anytime landowners call about garbage concerns.

“We try to be a good neighbor,” Sorenson said.

A contributing factor to increased litter is that the landfill’s Cell 6 is reaching the end of its life, which means waste is being dumped at a higher elevation, creating more opportunity for wind to catch waste.

“As we construct that cell, we’re actually building up the we

st edge. So we’re always dumping kind of behind the hill,” Sorenson said. “We’re always trying to create ourselves a little bit of protection.”

The landfill’s Cell 7 is in design, with possible construction next year just south of Cell 6.

Having a second cell in which waste is deposited below ground level would offer an alternative to high-elevation dumping on windy days, Sorenson said.

Sorenson acknowledged that wind-blown waste complaints could grow as southwest Minot develops. Business development already is creeping toward the landfill, and land use plans to the east of the landfill call for future housing.

When the city council approved the expansion of the landfill for Cell 7, it also authorized the Public Works Department to begin looking for a new landfill site as an option to future expansion at the current site. Sorenson said a proposal to hire an engineer to start the search process stalled due to the budget uncertainties with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When presented the proposal again in 2021, the council postponed a search to focus on other major projects.

Standards suggest a community be actively searching for a new site at least five to 10 years before closure of an existing site. Sorenson said with the planned Cell 7, the existing landfill should last another 20-25 years.

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All about the bag

When it comes to reducing wind-blown landfill waste, garbage customers may be able to help.

State and local officials say the littering problem often results from loose garbage in trash bins or failure to properly secure bags.

Diana Trussell, solid waste program manager with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, said all waste should be in tightly secured garbage bags when placed in a trash container for pickup. If plastic bags can’t be recycled, they should be bundled to create more weight before being placed in disposal.

A high percentage of strewn garbage from Minot’s landfill is plastic bags. Instead of sending plastic bags to the landfill, residents can find recycling containers at grocery locations. Thrift stores also often take them to reuse them, and even Minot Public Library accepts plastic bag donations to send books with patrons.

Jason Sorenson, assistant public works director for the City of Minot, said most recyclers don’t want plastic bags, but there are recycling options the city can look into once it gets its curbside pickup program operating.