Duluth area’s garbage gets new home on the Range — and could contribute to cleaner water

DULUTH – The approximately 15 truckloads of daily garbage generated within the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District will be routed to a landfill in Virginia, Minn., starting next year, under a 10-year contract approved by the St. Louis County Board during Tuesday’s meeting at the courthouse.

WLSSD, recently rebranded as Resource Renew, has long disposed of its municipal solid waste at the Moccasin Mike landfill run by the city of Superior. The closer landfill, which has been known to be nearing capacity for decades, is scheduled to close in 2026. Resource Renew solicited proposals for a different landfill location in September — opting for the Regional Landfill on the Iron Range, the only one of its kind in northeastern Minnesota.

The WLSSD board is expected to approve the contract during its May 19 meeting. The contract begins in July 2026.

“The county’s proposal for the disposal currently at the Virginia landfill was the most reliable, environmentally responsible, affordable long-term solution for disposal for the region,” said Carrie Clement, the newly appointed executive director of Resource Renew.

The trucks will need to travel farther than Moccasin Mike, Clement said, but customers should only see about a $10-$20 per year increase in their fees.

The landfill in Virginia has been operational since 1993 and recent upgrades have commissioners estimating it could last decades more. The county used a hefty chunk of its pandemic-relief aid on an innovative mixed-solid-waste landfill in Virginia. A 10-acre cell has coils and a geothermal liner that collect heat, up to 120 degrees, from decomposing garbage packed above it. The energy will be used at a wastewater treatment plant planned for nearby, where water will be cleared of contaminants, including PFAS.

The $12.5 million project was the first of its kind in the state and is expected to be a blueprint for other communities.

In tandem, the county board approved of an environmental assessment, to be completed by Northeast Technical Services using $523,000 from mineral tax grant revenue, for the development of a gravel operation and future solid waste site in Canyon, Minn.

This facility, which would also treat landfill leachate, could potentially be used in addition to the Virginia landfill.

St. Louis County Commissioner Keith Nelson described the Canyon project as not sexy, but critical.

“It’s exciting to see this in front of us today, but more importantly I hope they’re hearing this message at the state Legislature loud and clear,” he said during the meeting. “This is phase one. We need this project to keep moving and that’s going to happen with a bonding request. That is something they’re all very well aware of, where we’re at.”

Commissioner Paul McDonald said the agreement, along with the Canyon plans, will affect generations.

“Our grandkids, their kids, their grandkids,” he said. “They’re in a position now where we’re not going to have to worry about the future for the next 50-plus years. ... We should have had a band in here today playing.”