Changes may be coming to the city compost and burn sites on the south side of Seward.
Over the years, problems have arisen, including several unintended fires and illegal dumping. City officials say moving one of the sites could alleviate some issues.
The Seward City Council was briefed on the matter at its Dec. 20 meeting.
The burn site is a pile of tree trunks and limbs, as well as materials like pallets that are allowed to be burned under the city’s state burn permit.
The separate but nearby compost site is for leaves and grass clippings, which are not allowed to be burned.
“One of the issues we have is we light the burn pile on fire, and then it sparks the compost site. That sits and smolders for days on end,” City Administrator Greg Butcher said. “Then the inverse happens. We know when we’re under red flag (warning), we’re not going to light the burn site.
“But then we have this compost pile that will self-combust because it’s generating heat and will catch the burn site on fire.”
By nature, compostable materials generate heat as they decompose, in part because of the moisture content. If not properly aerated, the matter can combust.
“The site is just small,” Butcher said. “It’s hard to work the stuff in a way to prevent that issue.”
When the piles catch fire, the city relies on the volunteer fire department’s pumper and tanker trucks to put it out, with no hydrants or access to water at the sites.
Public Properties Director Bob Core said the city was reprimanded by the state recently for inadvertently burning compost.
“When the compost catches fire, we’re going against our license,” Core said. “You can’t burn leaves. You can’t burn grass.”
Another problem is the way the sites are being used, Butcher said. The city deposits its own tree debris at the burn site, but most of the material is contributed by commercial haulers.
“A lot of the compost is (from) lawn services, and we have two commercial (trash) haulers. They collect your bins of grass clippings, then they dump it on our compost pile for $100 (per year),” Butcher said.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier said that, while the city allows commercial dumping, that wasn’t the intended use when the site first opened.
“It was meant for Mom and Pop doing this on a Saturday morning. I did not intend for it to be the answer to a commercial problem,” Eickmeier said. “This was supposed to solve a problem, but I guess it was too popular.”
Council member John Singleton said the site is used frequently by ‘Mom’ and ‘Pop.’
“If we would take it away, that would be ugly,” he said.
Council member Matt Stryson said illegal dumping around the county would likely worsen if the sites were closed. County Commissioner Darrell Zabrocki, who was in attendance, agreed.
“You shut this down, you’ll probably create some problems in the county,” Zabrocki said.
Eickmeier said the intent isn’t to take away residents’ access to the sites, but perhaps to move the compost site.
“It has grown too close to the burn site,” he said. “The community has come to expect that there be a place for this. We don’t want to push a problem onto anyone else.”
One option would be to move the compost pile to the other side of the nearby creek, but Butcher said that area is the location of the old city landfill.
“I don’t know if there’s any legalities that would allow us to put something that would self-combust on top of that,” he said.
Singleton suggested moving it to one of the parcels of farm ground the city owns.
“Most of the farm ground the city owns is in the floodplain,” Butcher said. “You cannot put a compost site in the floodplain.”
Butcher said illegal dumping is another problem.
“We’ve had even commercial haulers literally dump trash out there,” Butcher said. “It’s not hard to track them down. The city can prosecute for that.”
They’ve also dumped trash on the adjacent property, which is privately owned, he said.
The sites are situated next to what Butcher called “prime developable land,” which will be needed as the city continues to grow.
“If we develop it, then we have this giant fiery pile there…that’s not conducive,” Butcher said.
Another suggestion was to rent a tub grinder twice a year to dispose of tree debris instead of burning it. That would cost around $60,000.
Core said the city could offset some of that cost by raising key prices for tree services and commercial entities.
The council did not act on the matter. Butcher said the agenda item was meant only to begin the discussion.
