Construction underway on Wisconsin multi-county landfill

Construction on a landfill that will serve the Wisconsin counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago counties is now underway, reports WLUK FOX 11.

The 313-acre site located in southern Brown County is designed to have 13 years of capacity at current waste levels from three counties.

The work planned for this year includes excavation and adding security fencing around the entire site. Dean Haen, director of Brown County Port and Resource Recovery, says the site for a landfill is perfect.

“This is really a geologically ideal site for a landfill, we’ve got 100 plus feet of nature’s best clay so we have to build a landfill to meet state specs, you could build that in any situation, here you have the additional 60 to 80 feet of natural clay that will underline the landfill and preserve and protect the environment," he said.

Since entering into a solid waste partnership in 2002, Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago will each operate a landfill in sequence to coordinate waste and recycling efforts to be more efficient.

The first county landfill to be used was in Winnebago County, with Brown and Outagamie counties operating solid waste transfer stations where waste was collected, compacted and then hauled to the landfill in Winnebago. When that landfill reached capacity, the solid waste disposal shifted to Outagamie County. The Outagamie landfill is expected to reach capacity near the end of 2022, with waste disposal then shifting to Brown County.

The estimated cost to construct the initial phase of the project is $20 million, which will be recouped on a per ton basis of disposal over the life of the landfill.

Haen says construction will continue through 2021, with the landfill expected to start taking in solid waste in 2022.