2008 Woodie Awards
Landfill braces for deluge of waste from flood
David Henderson - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 6/19/08 Section: Metro
Two miles west of Iowa City, the heavy lifting for the city's landfill has just begun.
Lined up for the scale Tuesday afternoon, a dozen or more dump trucks, F-150s, F-750s, Dodge Rams, a box-van, SUVs, and a behemoth Waste Management truck stretched back around the curve of the driveway, occasionally blocking another lane of exiting traffic.
Busy as the landfill is already, the deluge of trash that will follow the flood is only just beginning.
Britt More, sales manager for Hawkeye Waste Systems, said that so far, he's not seeing extra congestion on trips to the landfill, but he suspects that it is because the city hasn't yet allowed people in to clean up much of the flood damage yet.
The business, which is located near the Iowa City airport, has six trucks and "vast quantity of open-tops."
More said the business was saved by the quick construction of a half-mile long, 10-foot-high earth and sandbag levee.
The Hawkeye Waste System vehicles make trips to the landfill all day, or at least every minute of the landfill's business hours, which are 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
At first - when road and bridge access restricted by the flood - the drives to the landfill took an hour and a half instead of the usual 20 minutes.
Natalie Yutzy, office manager for N & N Sanitation in Kalona, said that company's only problem in dispatching waste is that the landfill does not have longer hours.
"Staying open till 6 [p.m.] after the tornado [in 2006] was a huge help," she said.
N & N is small operation and a family business, she said, which imposes inevitable constraints.
"We've got to sleep, too," said Yutzy. "My husband [a driver for N & N] was working till 11:30 last night and up again this morning at 4."
Despite few disposal options, residents also face city regulations. However, Iowa City officials are working to accommodate the needs of flood victims.
The city announced that the landfill will accept strictly sandbag-related waste at no charge. But household, construction, demolition, or commercial waste is not included in the fee holiday.
Lined up for the scale Tuesday afternoon, a dozen or more dump trucks, F-150s, F-750s, Dodge Rams, a box-van, SUVs, and a behemoth Waste Management truck stretched back around the curve of the driveway, occasionally blocking another lane of exiting traffic.
Busy as the landfill is already, the deluge of trash that will follow the flood is only just beginning.
Britt More, sales manager for Hawkeye Waste Systems, said that so far, he's not seeing extra congestion on trips to the landfill, but he suspects that it is because the city hasn't yet allowed people in to clean up much of the flood damage yet.
The business, which is located near the Iowa City airport, has six trucks and "vast quantity of open-tops."
More said the business was saved by the quick construction of a half-mile long, 10-foot-high earth and sandbag levee.
The Hawkeye Waste System vehicles make trips to the landfill all day, or at least every minute of the landfill's business hours, which are 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
At first - when road and bridge access restricted by the flood - the drives to the landfill took an hour and a half instead of the usual 20 minutes.
Natalie Yutzy, office manager for N & N Sanitation in Kalona, said that company's only problem in dispatching waste is that the landfill does not have longer hours.
"Staying open till 6 [p.m.] after the tornado [in 2006] was a huge help," she said.
N & N is small operation and a family business, she said, which imposes inevitable constraints.
"We've got to sleep, too," said Yutzy. "My husband [a driver for N & N] was working till 11:30 last night and up again this morning at 4."
Despite few disposal options, residents also face city regulations. However, Iowa City officials are working to accommodate the needs of flood victims.
The city announced that the landfill will accept strictly sandbag-related waste at no charge. But household, construction, demolition, or commercial waste is not included in the fee holiday.
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