Kootenai County to seek bids for landfill capping; plans move forward for Wolf Lodge rural collection site

Kootenai County officials said April 7 they will seek construction bids to cap older areas of the Fighting Creek Landfill and continue design work for a new staffed rural collection site in the Wolf Lodge Bay area.

John Phillips, director of the county solid waste department, told the Board of County Commissioners the department has 100% bid documents from Parametrix Engineering for closure work and expects Solid Waste and Legal to finish reviews so the project can be advertised "within the next couple of weeks." He said closure funds are already budgeted.

The closure work calls for a longer‑term "closure turf" cover on outside slopes and a shorter‑term, less expensive "VersaCap" intermediate cover on other areas. "Before the Solid Waste Department begins putting waste into the newly constructed landfill cell E3, we must cap some of the older areas of the landfill in order to minimize the amount of area that's exposed for potential leachate collection and the any fugitive landfill gas emissions," Phillips said.

Phillips also reported the county purchased property in Wolf Lodge Bay for a future staffed rural garbage collection site. He said JUB Engineering is finalizing bid specifications and last‑minute grading and drainage details; the county hopes to put the work out to bid within months and to construct the site during the current construction season.

In separate planning steps, Phillips said the department asked Jacobs Engineering to prepare scopes for two additional items that will come before the board: a permitting and feasibility study to pursue on‑site uses of reclaimed leachate (after a pilot using ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis) and updated grading/stormwater plans for the Ramsey transfer station demo pit to preserve room for future expansion.

The county will present the professional‑services agreements and construction bidding packages to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration in upcoming business meetings.