No violations at Colburn landfill, agencies say

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is rejecting claims that Bonner County’s landfill at Colburn was improperly capped and discharging leachate.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and IDEQ fielded complaints that the landfill site was improperly closed and liquid leaching from the landfill was being discharged in a pit at the Colburn solid waste transfer station.

Officials from the Panhandle Health District and IDEQ reviewed records documenting the capping of the landfill in 1994 and its re-capping 1995 and found no irregularities. Regulators from the two agencies inspected the site on Feb. 24, but found no evidence of leaching.

Although there was three-quarters of an inch of snow on the ground and temperatures were below freezing, which made it difficult to observe water in the suspect pit, inspectors saw no evidence of leachate discharge.

“Leachate emanating from the landfill would typically be above 32ºF resulting in at least some open water in the pit. No open water was observed during the inspection,” Dean Ehlert, IDEQ’s solid waste program coordinator in Boise, said in a March 17 letter to the county.

Inspectors said it appeared stormwater runoff from the landfill cap, in addition to paved and unpaved surfaces at the site, was collecting in the pit.

However, Ehlert said a follow-up inspection is planned due to the weather conditions that were present during last month’s inspection.

“They’ll probably come out in the spring,” Bonner County Solid Waste Director Leslie Marshall said on Thursday.

Bonner County has two other landfills, one at Idaho Hill in Oldtown and another at Dickensheet north of Priest River. All three landfills are capped and now serve as waste transfer stations.

Under federal regulations, municipal solid waste landfills accepting less than 100 tons per day were ordered closed and covered in 1994. Part of the cap at Colburn was later removed during a Bonner County sheriff’s investigation.

Marshall couldn’t recall why investigators opened the cover. The timing, however, coincides with the investigation into the disappearance of a retired school teacher who was later found buried beneath his Muskrat Lake home.

Darryl Robin Kuehl was convicted of Paul Gruber’s murder and is serving a 25-to-life prison sentence.

A Panhandle Health inspector determined that the replaced portion of cap met state and federal criteria, although it did not match the cover’s original design.