New hazardous waste collection site could be in Woodbury

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Washington County needs a new hazardous waste collection site.

Washington County has a parcel of land in Woodbury that has a public works building and some extra space.

Could the two find a happy marriage?

County leaders have known for a couple of years that they would have to move the county’s hazardous waste collection site, currently in Oakdale, as its lease is up and will not be renewed.

While the county was granted a one-year extension on the lease, it absolutely must be out of the Oakdale location in June 2009.

Washington County officials have been exploring whether the county can use land next to its south maintenance shop located at the corner of Bailey Road and Cottage Grove Drive in Woodbury.

The county’s maintenance shop is close to the northern edge of that lot. County staff members have been working with consultant Jeff Oertel to determine if it makes sense to put a hazardous waste collection building on the same site.

Staff members presented options for building on the site to the county’s board of commissioners at a workshop April 8.

“We really think this alternative in the south shop would serve our department very well,” said Lowell Johnson, director of the county’s department of Public Health and Environment, which would oversee the hazardous waste collection site.

The site has a few quirks. There are two 10-acre parcels of land to the east of it. And there are two homes on the sites immediately east of the public works building. But the site east of that, which is vacant, will most probably become property of the city of Woodbury in the near future.

That arrangement provides the potential for making the entire area a campus for public uses, including the site for a Woodbury fire station.

Other options include remodeling the current maintenance shop, which was built for smaller maintenance vehicles than are currently used, and build a new hazardous waste collection site on the south side of the lot.

One of the options explored calls for building a new hazardous waste collection site on the north side of the lot, building a new county maintenance shop on another lot to the east of the current location, and then use the lot where the current maintenance shop is for a new Woodbury fire station.

More detailed discussions will start soon with the city of Woodbury, said Don Theisen, the county’s director of public works.

Estimates indicate a new hazardous collection building would cost about $3.6 million to build. Modeled on directions the county board offered previously, it would be a basic building with a drive-through area for county residents to drop off their waste.

Architect Oertel said the building will be built with spaces for truck trailers to park behind it. Waste would be collected in those trailers, and hauled away as soon as they are full. That would make the building capable of handling whatever level of waste is collected for years to come.

One concern of the commissioners has been that the building be in a location as convenient to as many county residents as possible. This location is slightly farther south than they would have liked, but if more “satellite” collections can be scheduled throughout the year for other locations in the county, that would help alleviate that concern, they said.

If both the county and the city are looking to build a public campus with public buildings, it is better to build it earlier than later so future residents know what neighborhood they are moving into, said District 4 Commissioner Myra Peterson.

Tags: news, hazardous, waste, collection, county