The Park County Commission and Powell City Council are close to an agreement on tipping fees, which will open up the door for Powell to ship its municipal solid waste to the Park County Regional Landfill south of Cody. Currently, Powell’s garbage goes to a landfill in Billings. 

In 2014, Powell and Park County were unable to come to an agreement on the fees. The county offered a fee of $72 per ton, whereas Billings was asking about $26. Even with transport costs, Powell was saving money shipping waste to Billings.

Since then, Billings has steadily increased tipping fees to over $44 per ton. With rising fuel and hauling costs, Powell is no longer saving money by utilizing the Montana landfill. 

“We’ve gotten to the point where it’s sustainable to go to the county,” said Powell City Administrator Zack Thorington at the regular council meeting on Monday. 

Thorington noted that in July, Billings’ tipping fee is likely to go up 5% or more. 

The county currently has an effective tipping fee of $74 per ton, but that cost is based on current volumes it takes in from Cody, Meeteetse, and county residents. With the additional volume from Powell’s residents, the county would offer a fee of about $65 per ton. This fee would apply to other municipalities utilizing the Park County Landfill. 

In 2014, the county argued that, by hauling its garbage to Billings, Powell was negatively impacting solid waste disposal rates for all the other residents of the county that use its landfill. Then-mayor of Powell Don Hillman said his main obligation was to save Powell residents money, and the council agreed to accept the Billings contract. 

On Tuesday, the county commission voted unanimously to draw up an eight-year contract with tipping fees around $65 per ton. 

“I think it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Park County Commissioner Scott Mangold at the Monday council meeting. “It would be helping out the entire county, and of course, that was the county’s argument before, that Powell was throwing the county under the bus.” 

At Tuesday’s commission meeting, Park County Engineer Brian Edwards explained the $65 per ton tipping fee is based on Powell volumes providing a sustainable amount of revenue. The councils of Cody and Meeteetse will also need to approve an eight-year term to sustain the necessary income for landfill operations and maintenance at that fee level. 

However, with Powell’s commitment to the contract translating to lower fees for the residents in those municipalities, Edwards said it should be an easy sell. 

The timing of this development is good news for the Powell sanitation budget. At current monthly residential and commercial rates, the department would be operating at a deficit of over $200,000 in the coming fiscal year. The council is considering increasing those rates by 12.55% to close that deficit and help bring up the reserves in the city’s sanitation fund. 

Powell Mayor John Wetzel said that, while Powell saved a considerable amount of money over the past eight years with the Billings contract, it wasn’t a surprise that Powell would need to switch to the Park County Landfill. 

“We probably knew this day was coming,” Wetzel said. 

If all the agreements come together, it will still be until the next fiscal year, which starts in July, until Powell’s garbage goes to the county’s landfill. 

While Powell has its own landfill, it lacks the requirements to accept municipal solid waste. It still accepts some construction disposal. When it closed, Powell built a transport station to allow it to ship garbage to any landfill it can contract with. 

The Powell City Council meets again on May 16.

(Eric Gill contributed reporting.)