John Roosa, Administrator, Boone County Landfill and Boone County Recycling, July 1, 2026

We are joined by the legendary John Rosa. Good to have you back. Good to be here. Thank you. Hey, it's been all over star of stage screen and other media reports. Oh, yeah. Well, all of a sudden it's like everybody's kind of, oh, we're running out of space. Yeah. And then the then you say, well, maybe 30 years anyway, but a lot of different exposure of things we've been talking about for some time. Yeah, it was brought up, I guess, IPR, I would public radio brought it up. They caught wind of, I think it started with Ames and the process they're going through and their changes and then how it was tied to us. And and then so we piggybacked off that to talk to them about what we're experiencing and where we're at, which led to other information as far as other landfills in the state. Yeah, it wasn't just art, what we're dealing with. But and then to the feasibility study or not the feasibility, the airspace capacity study and for the ISOCWO program, the Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operators, we did a statewide kind of analysis of what kind of life do all landfills in the state have ahead of them. And it was quite interesting to see that data come about who's on the kind of on the short list or the long term and who's in between and who's doing what. And, you know, some data was very specific, other was kind of loose, you know, you can only give whatever you have access to. But that led to a, you know, a more broad, I guess, inquiry about what's what's really happening. And to me, it was just it was interesting to be able to share our experience, but also of what everybody's going to experience at some point. And if there's 13 years, I've mentioned that as, you know, had we kept taking the Aims and Story County waste, or stopping that and then taking care of our primary service area to get to probably 35 years, or is it 75 years, but it will be a problem at some point in somebody's lifetime, maybe not ours or, you know, the next generation, but, you know, farther down, it's still going to be an issue. And I want to point out, there are others that are closer, closer to being done than we are. Ours, the supervisors just started, they just saw the space going very quickly. Well, again, once we had the working arrangement with Story County or the DNR said, go to Boone County, Story County closed theirs several years ago. Yeah. And then it became an issue. And we, you know, back then we had, we had more space and we were hoping to get more space too, which that also had surfaced in the last few years as well, where, how can we expand and what direction and where and then it suddenly became that, well, doesn't look like we can. So we better make some accommodations and try to extend our life as much as possible. Simple thing. Let's take less garbage and how do we do that? And unfortunately, it was with Ames and Story County and, you know, the resource plant folks have been great to work with in all my years here anyway, and in before. But it was just the amount of stuff that where, where's that all going to go? And then when they ended, discussed about ending their waste to energy program and how they're able to, you know, burn that waste up and stop that from going to a landfill. Well, suddenly now they're, you know, nope, not going to do that anymore in the future. So we're going to send it all to you. Oh boy, that's even worse. That's a lot. Yeah. That's, that's more. So, which is not what we wanted to do. We wanted to do less. That's kind of what got us into the buying because they started having issues the age of their, we'll point out, you know, in its day, that seemed to be a good solution. Sure. Cutting edge back in what 70s, I think they started. Well, now we're in, you know, 50 years later and, you know, there's not a lot of changes. They've experienced some issues with their, what they're able to burn and by their permit regulations at the power plant of burning their fuel and to mix with the garbage to burn it together. And then what regulation is there with that? And, you know, their, their switch from coal to natural gas burning caused some issues. So it was just a lot going on and there was just a lot of, I guess everything kind of came together. The perfect storm of sorts to say, well, we can't expand and you can't burn anymore. And we're making more waste as a society. Just a lot of stuff is like, something's got to change. Something's got to give. Well, and a lot of it started out with something we've always kind of kept going back to the bottom line is recycling is good. It does help preserve space. The downside is you got to have a market for recycling and we're small. So we only have so much. And we obviously go down, down to the metro. We ship, ship a lot of our recycling and obviously the little bigger volume they get, they have a better market. So it's not everything can be recycled. Right. Unfortunately, it'd be better if there was, you know, to have more material. I mean, recycling is, is pretty expensive, but it's still the right thing to do. And, you know, I've been hitting upon on and at times when I get to the chance to discuss it about it comes down to carrying, frankly, and you need to care about your airspace. And that's more the exposure to this to say, you know, it matters. And hopefully people start caring about the airspace at our landfill and, and taking care of it, caring by recycling more. If you don't recycle, try start. It's pretty simple and easy, pretty straightforward. There's curbside service available in most of the communities. There's drop off areas, there's places for it to go. So care. And care about those products that, you know, instead of just saying, Oh, well, just throw it away, try to give us stuff away. I see a lot of stuff at our landfill that could be, it's still good, frankly. And it's shame to see it just thrown away. I see a lot of loads come in with metal and it too lazy to or don't care enough to separate it and put it into our metal recycling area. So it just gets thrown away. And that's metal that can easily be recycled. It's those simple things. And if you care enough, and know that it matters, because it does. And that's part of the spiel I've been on lately, just to say, you know, this, this has increased awareness about our landfill. This not just for Boone and for Ames and Story County and how it's going to impact Carroll County landfill as they stepped up to take the waste coming out of Ames and Story County. But it's going to be statewide, it's combination wide, you know, eventually. And maybe it's not, again, maybe not 13 years, maybe not three years, maybe not 30 years, but eventually you're going to run out of space. The recycling part of it, are you have we because of all the time we've been doing this. Obviously, the big thing is trying to get more people to do it. And I know there were times when all of a sudden people are putting a lot of things in there because they think it should be recyclable, not necessarily. But we have had a pretty good response. We see more people doing it, probably not to the volume we would like to see. Yeah. And there's always more. I always proceed with, let's do it right. Let's focus on doing it the correct way and taking only the material, putting in only the materials that we can accept. Unfortunately, we can't take everything. I don't know if there will ever be a market here in Boone County for Styrofoam. It's just, that's just bad stuff. The plastic bags can be recycled, but not through us. It has its own special niche market of where it can go, kind of like pallets, you know, those can be recycled, probably if there's a market for them, that there's someone that can take them. There was a, those were hot, you know, a few years ago and that market's kind of tapered off as of late. It would be nice to see more and have more opportunities. But we can only take what we have a market to send to somebody else to take, you know, the electronics and TVs that market sure has taken off and please keep them out of our bills. Which that's understandable. We're starting to see things there. And some of them are trying to harvest more of the rare earths, those and stuff like that. Precious metals in there. And if you're able to recover that, that's great. And let's put it to use. And then we're not burying everything. You know, probably some of that plastic casing that is familiar with the casing on those new TVs, you know, that's probably going to be, maybe they can be recycled, maybe not. It depends on the market, what it's made out of, et cetera. So hopefully it's all being recycled. I remember when we were, we thought we could work on the shingles, you know, and I had an area where they knew it were roofing, they could dump their shingles, getting all the nails out of them was another thing. But, but, and again, that was one of those, we tried it. Yeah. And then our market died off too. So we're taking it to Des Moines and into their facility, but then they had such a big pile of shingles being accumulated that they're like, no more, we can't, you know, we're not taking any more right now. So, and that's been a few years now that it's been stagnant, unfortunately. So, we just keep working, you know, it just never ends. But some of the things that are going on for the landfill, and again, you got a lot of, a lot of interesting things. I know you're going to meet with the supervisors, but Forest Main project moving forward and things are progressing with that. Yeah, the contractors got in and did a lot of work, got a lot of the stuff down, down below. So there's actually two kind of stages of it, if you will. There's the lower portion pumping from our lagoon at the bottom of the landfill, pumping it up to another lift station near our shop area along Montana. And then there'll be the horizontal pumping going from there to the manhole nearest in the city limits. So the bottom portion, the phase one, I guess, is really close. They did, the contractors did their portion. Now it's basically the phase three wire has been pulled down to that area. We still need a transformer, transformer pad, everything hooked up. And then essentially that'll be ready to go. You know, we can't start pumping yet. We still need the horizontal portion. So, but that'll be nice because now we can let the next construction which is the which there's a cell project with a big glass cell. Yeah, the final permitted cell that we have at the landfill. And those contractors can start so it's coming together on a time frame of rather nicely so far knock on wood that it'll continue get the next contractors in to start doing their work and then they can continue and then once the risers and the electricity and then the piping for the force main horizontal pumping portion of the force main is ready, then contractors can come back and continue their work. So yeah, it's kind of busy working with all the different contractors, but pretty exciting to see all those things happening. You got good engineers, they can communicate and say, okay, we're doing this, we're going here, we got this, all right. Yep. You got a couple of days to get this done. And if Mother Nature cooperates, you can get it done. That's a big one. It was a little pause at the start of when they first showed up and then it was a delay, but then they went went like crazy and got a lot of work done. So it's coming along. And for people that are not aware right now, leachate collected, and you pump it basically into a truck. Yep. And a couple times a week, haul it to the haul it to the wastewater plant. We're going like crazy right now trying to get that pump down to make more room as we get into the next phase project and capturing some more of that. So yeah, it's certainly a busy time to do that. Think about the time that we can do that. And it's only during the regular working hours that we can pump, we, you know, we can get three, four, five, four or five loads going to the water treatment plant in a day, you know, so we can pump out, you know, 15, 18,000 gallons in a day, roughly get it hauled into town, which is a lot. But when our lagoon holds just shy of a million gallons, and it's, you know, three, fours full, you start doing like, oh boy, we got to get that, keep getting it hauled out. And in the future, it certainly is going to be so much easier to pump slow and steady over a 24 hour period instead of going hot and heavy for the eight hours. Because I'm pretty sure down there, the wastewater plant, when it's a load coming in, they go, they kind of groan a little. And the same issues you have with some of this stuff. Yeah. And sometimes it's helpful, you know, to be able to bring in some, you know, bacteria and some growth. And you know, there's, there's good things about it, helpful things in that regard. But also, certainly management purposes will be steady for on our end to build a pump it slow and steady instead of whamming them with it. And I think they'll probably be able to manage theirs, their production easier as well. And for folks wondering, leachate containment and and disposal, if you will, that is a mandate. That's a DNR. Again, one of those mandates that's out there, you got to take care of it, have to take care of it after the landfill closes. Right. So we're talking years down the road. Yeah. So hopefully are alone. Hope there are 35 years of, you know, being able to accept waste. And there's other little bit of opportunity too to get more area. But then it's another 20 to 30 years after that as well. So we'll be using the, you know, the system for 50 years. At least 70. Well, build it right. So we get all our use out of it that we can. Yep. Well, that's going on. But otherwise, they're moving along pretty good. It sounds like. Yeah, it's been good so far. And they're, they pulled out and left and went to a different site because they're kind of waiting on these risers to be built and then formed and brought in and the construction down below. And then they can do the top one too and get that going. And they start doing the boring, I guess, of the material they got to go all the way under Highway 30 and then along Montana for a good distance. So still work to do. But it's like, I asked him, I said, so what are we looking at when you come back? And if everything is up, you know, and you're going, you know, you know, a month question mark, you know, whether permitting, if everything goes well, and all the materials, all those, there's a lot of variables, but I'm not going to hold them to that month. But you know, it's pretty exciting to think when they come back, it could be a month, maybe two, you know, and we have an end date of, I think, November 1st on that project. So we'll keep working on it too. All right, we've got a few other things to hit on here before, before I run out of time. But again, the first things we do have holiday time coming up. And so what is the schedule looking like? Again, our first Saturday is the 4th of July. So I'm guessing we're not doing another household hazardous waste collection that that day. Not on that day, right? We'll move it back. Yep. So we'll take that go to the 11th. So the household hazardous waste Saturday collection event for July is on the 11th. Okay. And then our hour adjustment that we do for the 4th of July, since it's on the Saturday and it's recognized as a holiday for the county, we actually run our Saturday hours on the Friday before. Okay. So on Saturday, kind of a half day Friday, 8 to 11 on Friday, the third. So we're not not closed that day. We're not fully open for the full day. So just a half day ish, 8 to 11 on Friday and then Saturday closed on the 4th and the 5th. And then we're back to normal regular hours on the 6th. And I know one of the things, yeah, because you don't like being closed over three days. I mean, you try to avoid three days in a row. So and that's kind of a local, that's a kind of a that's something you just try to do. Well, yeah, that's, I think it was back in the day of Scott Smith, I think that's it was the process trying to avoid that to keep the flow of waste coming in and help haulers. I know there's other landfills in the area that don't do that. So it's just it's it's a not a statewide thing or it's not a mandated thing. It's a local option that you do for your service area. So we've just been trying to avoid that that we do that with Thanksgiving time also and we're open on the Friday after instead of being closed. Yeah, there's some changes we have some we don't always follow the calendar of the Boone County to the to the letter we try to make accommodations as much as we can. In the past or I know it's come up a couple of times with supervisors about taking days off different days off and things like that. And again, a lot of them, like you said, these have been kind of built in over time. We've done them a long time. That's not like some of these are new things. Right. So we've got that lightning is one of your more recent wind and lightning have been topics that have come up a couple of times lately. So I know for the board to ask you about them. So still waiting to see what what happens there. I know you get a little nervous when you have people out there and there's a thunderstorm in the area. Yep, that's nerve wracking. You know, safety credit keep that as a priority for our staff or for everybody, frankly, and, you know, lightning in the areas can be a dangerous situation. So we've always made it our process to be try to be as safe as possible with that get our workers off the face keep keep people out of there too. There's there's dangers with that. So but how can we still provide the service to allow garbage to come in but keep everybody safe. There's a delicate balance there of what what we can do and what we should do. And so discussions about that about policy. So we keep working. I know one of the things I got a note from my hauler says there will be an increase in my monthly charge due to increase in fees at the landfill. And I know that's a balancing act you're going through trying to reduce what's coming in. But at the same time, you got to continue got to have so much income to operate. Right. Yep. And it's more like, you know, it's not a big change right now with Ames and Story County still coming in for another year. We raised the rate now it's probably going to happen next year also as we really cut our volume down for in fiscal 27. So you're doing and trying to do a gradual step instead of going up of a whole bunch. Let's phase it in type of the thing. So that's what we're looking at for the for another year from now on how we can keep everything moving and you know, everything's getting more expensive fuel equipment, you know, we're looking at equipment purchases and you know, those the last one we bought last compact we bought versus the next one coming in a little bit more. No, there's a lot more if you ask me. It's a 30% increase in that realm. So I mean, a hefty one that's been over, you know, five, six years. So yeah, a final final thing with the fourth of July holiday. Yes. I'm pretty sure it's not just you but maybe your haulers also are good. If you're doing fireworks, make sure they are. Yeah, don't be kind of like batteries. Don't put them in your garbage. Please. Yeah, there's a mixture for you, right? Throw batteries and and old fireworks in your garbage. Please don't do that. Don't put your batteries in the garbage. Don't put your fireworks in the garbage or the recycling. You know, if you shoot them off, that's great. That's step one. If you bought the fireworks, shoot them off safely so that they're done or removes the the powder out of them, makes them safer. Don't recycle those and also do soak them even afterwards before you put them in your garbage. So soak them for 24 hours before you dispose of them. Just be sure. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Just take care of it. Just think about where it's going because it is someone's problem. We have we have people, we have an environment, we have all sorts of things to take care of. So we just do what we what we can to try to stay safe. Yes. John Rosa, landfill administrator, recycling coordinator, our guest on our program today. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.