Septic Tank Pumpers In Squeeze Over Dumping Ground Disposal Sought To Solve Site Shortage, Increasing Cost

Some septic tank pumpers in Minidoka and Cassia counties want to dump septic tank waste on the ground now that other area dumping sites are either closed or more expensive.

Alternatives for dumping septic tank waste are being sought in the Mini-Cassia area, where some suspect illegal dumping is occurring, because the only place left to dump is at the regional landfill, and that costs more than any past means of disposal.

Septic tank pumpers will ask commissioners in both counties to approve sites near Albion and northwest of Rupert for mixing septic tank waste with soil.

Albion rancher Bennie Smyer plans to graze cattle on the land near Albion, and native grasses would be grown on the Rupert-area site. Both sites are near old landfills.

When handled correctly the process is a good way to dispose of sewage, said Scott Arnell, environmental health specialist with the South Central District Health Department.

It decomposes quickly and adds nutrients to the soil, he said.

Homeowners not connected to city sewers may have found that pumping their septic tanks has become more expensive since city and county landfills closed when the regional landfill opened west of Burley in early 1994.

Cost of dumping at the regional landfill - where sewage is mixed in with soil and eventually used to cover garbage - is more expensive than dumping at the old landfills where it sat in lagoons.

Dumping at the regional landfill also costs twice what it costs to dump at a city sewage treatment plant. But cities no longer accept septic tank waste because it is simply too much for their sewage systems to handle.

Burley stopped accepting in July when the plant was one milligram short of violating the legal limit of organic material in treated sewage discharge.

Gary McOmber, solid waste coordinator for the South Central District Health Department, said not much septic tank waste is going into the regional landfill.

The only other approved sites in the area are in Gooding and Twin Falls, McOmber said.