Nigel Baummer

Nigel Baummer

Engineer, Herrera Environmental Consultants

As a geological engineering major at the University of Madison-Wisconsin and now an engineer at Herrera Environmental Consultants, Seattle, Nigel Baummer knew pretty quickly that he enjoyed landfill work.

During an internship with Dane County Public Works at the Dane County Landfill outside Madison, Wisconsin, Baummer says he spent a lot of time at the site and gained insight into landfill operations.

“Once you got to the top of [the landfill], you had a great view of the city from there,” he says. “It was absolutely gorgeous. And just getting to see the heavy equipment move and getting to see the dirt work going on all at once—that’s pretty cool.”

When he attended WasteCon in Baltimore in 2017, he “really fell in love” with the waste industry. His first full-time job out of college was with HDR Inc.—an Omaha, Nebraska-based design and engineering firm—where he spent four years as an engineer in King County, Washington.

Now, with Herrera, Baummer works primarily on landfill and transfer station design, consulting with project owners, visiting sites and participating in meetings about projects.

In the following interview, he shares what he enjoys most about his work and the challenges facing landfill owners and operators.

"How do you tell people that you’re going to take away part of their golf course for waste? You do great public outreach; you get this great public feedback behind your mission.”

Waste Today (WT): What are some things you really like about your work?

Nigel Baummer (NB): The diversity of work is really nice. To be frank, most of the work I do is on landfills, but there’s a wide range of work within the landfills. I like to have a lot of coordination directly with the client and with the community if available. … One of my favorite things about working for King County with HDR—we had these staff engagement meetings. I totally get I’m a white hat coming in with a vest that’s probably not quite that dirty. At times like that, maybe they give you a little smile, maybe they warm up a little bit, but it took a while to show them, “Hey, I’m really listening and really caring [about this work].” … It felt like it was going to be a challenge. So, near the end of the … design for this [transfer station] … I got this comment in the chat from one of the operating staff saying, “I think we’re going to like this facility.” I screenshot it. I almost hung it up on the office wall. For me to get that feedback from staff that are going to run the facility and operate it—that was worth the long nights, the long weekends [and] the long hard work.

WT: What kinds of challenges and opportunities exist for landfill owners and operators in the future?

NB: Space is a commodity. As landfills reach closure, what are we doing with them? Where are we going to put the waste? That’s going to be a really cool opportunity. I think it’s really interesting because we’re trying to reduce waste and promote the reduction of waste. … How do we make the public OK with putting a landfill in their backyard? The Dane County Public Works feels that the landfill was reaching capacity, and [is] looking at an expansion. They had a huge amount of public outreach to get public positivity around the landfill. They partnered with a local museum to have a trash lab. They do landfill tours; they do internships out there. … How do you tell people that you’re going to take away part of their golf course for waste? You do great public outreach; you get this great public feedback behind your mission. And it’s still going to be really, really challenging, but at least you have some kind of momentum from the public.