All told, in 2004 Minnesota sent 840,000 tons of garbage to Iowa, the Dakotas and especiallyWisconsin. Almost no garbage is hauled into Minnesota.
SARONA, WIS. -- Sitting on the screened porch of their home on Ripley Lake, Nancy and Jim Swanson say they're all too familiar with Twin Cities trash.
They and their neighbors smell it whenever the wind blows from the south, or when methane gas hovers above the lake.
They live about a mile from one of Wisconsin's larger landfills near Sarona, a small community of 300 scattered residents about 100 miles northeast of the Twin Cities. That 65-acre landfill has one primary use.
Lake Area Landfill is the final resting place for about 412,000 tons of Minnesota chicken bones, picnic plates and plastic forks -- half the trash that Minnesota ships out of state.
"This area should be a vacation land, not a landfill land," said Jim Swanson, voicing Wisconsin's growing displeasure.
Record amounts of Minnesota garbage, especially from the Twin Cities, are being exported to Iowa, the Dakotas -- and especially to Wisconsin, where some loads travel 300 miles to landfills near Milwaukee.
All told, Minnesota sent 840,000 tons of garbage to other states in 2004, about one-fourth of the state's total trash after recycling, and triple the amount of a decade ago. Almost no garbage comes into the state, Minnesota officials say.
Wisconsin by far is the major recipient, and its residents are increasingly unhappy about becoming Minnesota's dumping grounds.
A matter of money
"It stinks, it costs money, it's increasing our property taxes and using up our landfill capacity," said Ann Sayers, policy director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.
The main reason Minnesota exports so much trash is simple economics. Wisconsin has lower fees and less restrictive financial regulations, making disposal costs cheaper, Minnesota officials say.
That may change as pressure builds in Wisconsin to slow the flow of Minnesota's garbage. Out-of-state trash is the top issue for a coalition of 35 environmental and conservation groups, Sayers said. Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle launched a task force on waste recovery and disposal, with meetings around the state.
"Minnesota should take care of their own wastes," said Lyle Schrader, an Iowa resident who owns a cabin on Ripley Lake. He and others worry that the landfill could leak and contaminate groundwater in a landscape splattered with lakes and wetlands.
Fred Blake, president of the Washburn County Lakes and Rivers Association, said the county has 963 lakes and much of the land is sand and gravel that can allow contaminants to move into groundwater.
Looking at legislation
Shipping waste is covered by interstate commerce laws, so states can't ban it. But some Wisconsin environmentalists have suggested raising dump fees by $10 a ton.
Wisconsin legislators considered that this spring, but it died in committee. Business groups opposed it, saying it would cost firms and consumers $48 million annually.
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said he intends to reintroduce the bill next year. "The chances of it passing are increasing, because the issue is getting a lot more visibility in the state," he said. Most of the money would fund recycling programs.
That would be fine with Blake, speaking for himself and not for the lake association. "What's driving this is money, not principle," he said. "What's right is not what's being done."
Said Rep. Black: "There's a visceral dislike of [these shipments] in Wisconsin. Citizens have done a good job recycling and have cut in half the waste that goes to landfills, but they see those efforts negated by wastes coming in from out of state."
The parade of trucks
In Sarona, residents say about 150 trucks -- many of them 18-wheelers -- pass through the landfill's gates daily.
Once a small landfill that served nearby counties, Sarona was bought by Browning-Ferris Industries in the mid-1990s and expanded. BFI, now a unit of Allied Waste Industries, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is beginning a 70-acre expansion that the Swansons and others have challenged in court.
In 2004, about 85 percent of the waste dumped at Sarona came from Minnesota, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported. A Minnesota report concluded that nearly two-thirds of the garbage sent to Sarona that year came from two Minnesota counties: Hennepin and Ramsey.
Other sites that receive large amounts of Minnesota waste include Seven Mile Creek Landfill near Eau Claire, operated by Onyx Waste Services Inc., Milwaukee, and Central Disposal Landfill in Lake Mills, Iowa, operated by Waste Management Inc.
John Kellas, regional director of operations for Waste Management, said that his company has significantly cut the amount of Minnesota trash going to Iowa, mainly because of higher fuel prices.
Where companies send garbage depends on several factors, he said, including available space, local and state taxes, the site's geology and the cost of sand, gravel and piping systems to collect water that seeps through a landfill and becomes contaminated.
Allied Waste officials did not return calls to discuss landfill operations. But Sarona township Chairman Russell Furchtenicht said the company has been a good neighbor and its contract compensates the township and county for road wear and other expenses.
Furchtenicht said Allied Waste has installed both plastic and clay liners to prevent leaks. "Garbage has got to go somewhere, and rather than have a lot of little landfills all over, it's better to have a few big ones and do a better job managing the waste."
Tom Meersman • 612 673-7388