Area residents can expect to see a lot of activity over the next two weeks as the pace of work picks up on an expansion project at the county landfill on the western edge of Sahuarita.
Crews and equipment will be moving a lot of dirt around, said Dave Eaker, head of the county Department of Environmental Quality's solid waste division.
"I think some real progress will be seen over the next week or two," Eaker said.
Most of the work will be done around a new pit, Cell 2, where green waste such as tree cuttings from landscaping companies will be dumped when the landfill at 16605 S. La Cañada Drive is reopened to those companies and other commercial haulers in January, he said.
That's good news to Myron Thiel, who like all other commercial haulers in the area has had to transport trash to the city of Tucson-operated Los Reales landfill for three years now. That's a 55-mile round trip, compared with the 10-mile round trip from his Green Valley-based business.
People are also reading…
The Sahuarita landfill was closed to commercial haulers in September 2003 because it was filling up. It has remained open for residential users.
"It's hurt me financially, but it's also hurt all the homeowners that we do work for, because they have to pay more," Thiel said.
He has had to add a surcharge for each of the customers to pay the higher fees and additional fuel necessary to drive the longer distance, he said.
One of Thiel's clients — Judson Richardson, who's in charge of landscaping for the Canoa Seca Estates Homeowners Association — said the surcharge has cost the association an additional $250 to $300 a month.
The cost of landscaping on the 27 acres of common area in the 170-home HOA jumped by about $6,000 in 2004, the first year Thiel added the surcharge.
Richardson said he looks forward to the Sahuarita landfill's reopening in January, because he hopes that's when the surcharge will end.
"I would love to see it go away," he said. "We've had to pay that surcharge since they kicked us out of there three years ago."
Donna Thiel, Myron Thiel's wife and co-owner of Donna's Property Management Inc., said she, Myron and a lot of other Sahuarita-area residents and business people look forward to the landfill's reopening to all users.
Business has been brisk, Donna Thiel said, and not only because of development throughout the area. The drought that has gripped the Southwest for several years has killed a lot of vegetation, and this season's monsoon rains have made the remaining vegetation grow lush, she said.
"People in Green Valley are screaming because we had to raise our prices. I don't know if the people with the county know how much they hurt the people out here because of this."
She said closure of the landfill to commercial haulers has caused more "wildcat dumping," or illegal dumping of trash and debris.
"They told us it would be about two years," Donna Thiel said. "It's been three years now, and it looks like work hasn't even started in some places."
Eaker said he regrets the inconvenience to residents. County officials' initial estimate on the project's completion date, January 2006, "was overly optimistic," he said.
But expanding the landfill, which opened in 1973, is a very complex operation, Eaker said. Among other things, the county must adhere to stringent local, state and federal environmental regulations.
The project required reconstruction of air- and water-quality monitoring devices required by environmental laws, he said.
It took the county six months to find a company that could do the work. The $6 million project was awarded to CS&W Contractors Inc., Eaker said.
Besides construction of Cell 2 for green waste, the project calls for construction of a new entryway and weigh station, a residential customer-convenience center that will include several bins for recyclable materials and a drop-off site for residential garbage, he said.
"It's a lot more than just a cell expansion," Eaker said. "It's more akin to developing a whole new site."
County landfill facts
Pima County operates four landfills: one in Sahuarita; two on the Northwest Side, on Ina and Tangerine roads; and one in Ajo. It also operates two waste-transfer stations, in Catalina and Ryan Field.
The landfills are:
● Sahuarita — 16605 S. La Cañada Drive
● Northwest — 10220 W. Tangerine Road and 5301 W. Ina Road
● Ajo — Well Road.
To find out more about where to dump trash and debris, fees, schedules and other information, call the county solid waste management division office, 740-3340, or go online to www.deq.pima.gov/waste
For information about the city of Tucson's Los Reales Landfill, call the city Environmental Services Department at 791-3171 or go online to www.tucsonaz.gov/esd.
