Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far this country has come when it comes to getting rid of its garbage.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that city and township dumps were closed down and cleaned up, including those in Becker County.

Up until then, anything went. Barrels of arsenic were accepted as a revenue source and thrown in local dumps along with everything else. Old-timers have fond memories of shooting rats at those township dumps, or hunting for antique bottles in rural dumpsites.

Up through the 1960s, rivers that ran through major cities were so polluted with oil and other industrial waste that they regularly caught fire.

The Potomac, as Time Magazine noted at the time, left Washington “stinking from the 240 million gallons of wastes that are flushed into it daily” while “Omaha’s meatpackers fill the Missouri River with animal grease balls as big as oranges.”

The Cuyahoga River, which famously burst into flames in Cleveland in 1969, was the last American river to catch fire. It was so saturated with sewage and industrial waste that there was no visible sign of any kind of life, and it “oozes rather than flows,” Time reported.

Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day, so now is a good time to take a look at where Becker County has been and where it’s headed when it comes to getting rid of its garbage.

The ill-fated Becker County Sanitary Landfill was permitted by the MPCA 1972. Cars could dump for 50 cents, pickup trucks were charged $1. Larger trucks were charged more, up to $15 for a semi-load.

But times have definitely changed.

“It’s not a dump anymore—we recycle so much out there,” said Sandy Gunderson, who (among other things) handles household hazardous waste for the county.

“And of the waste we do send out,” added Steve Skoog, director of Becker County’s Land Use Department, “75 to 80 percent of it is burned for energy and to reduce its toxicity.”

To read the full story, visit http://www.dl-online.com/news/4251511-what-earth-evolution-how-becker-county-has-handled-its-trash.

Sponsor