The Bayfield Transfer Station will close for about a week after the operator – WCA Waste Corp. – let trash pile up to the point where the company needed to close the center to get it cleaned up.
“It was a disaster,” said La Plata County Commissioner Julie Westendorff in a county meeting last week.
La Plata County contracts WCA to operate the facility at 4496 County Road 223, where rural residents can drop off their trash, which is ultimately transferred to the Bondad landfill, south of Durango.
The site, known as the Bayfield Convenience Center, also collects yard waste and mulch.
But in recent weeks, WCA was not transferring trash, and instead, letting it pile up at the site, Westendorff said.
On a recent visit, Westendorff said there were 20 to 30 mattresses lying in the open, and dumpsters were overflowing to the extent that people with more than a cubic yard of trash were turned away.
Additionally, Westendorff said the operator was not wearing a face covering when interacting with customers.
“I’ve been in touch with (County Manager Chuck Stevens) about what the heck is going on over there,” she said.
County spokeswoman Megan Graham said WCA decided to close the site after being contacted by county staff members.
“WCA’s remedy was to close it and get back on top of it, just to get ahead of the problem,” Graham said.
The Bayfield Convenience Center, which encompasses the transfer station as well as the yard waste and mulch drop off, will reopen Monday and will not accept waste of any kind until then.
Yard waste and mulch will not be accepted for “several weeks,” and mulch loading will not be available.
A WCA employee who answered the Bayfield location’s phone declined to comment. A call to the office’s headquarters in Bloomfield was not returned.
La Plata County pays WCA about $45,000 a year to operate both transfer stations in Bayfield and Marvel, and the company keeps fees from residents for dumping trash, which were raised this year, bringing in another $7,500 or so.
Last year, county commissioners debated whether to close the transfer stations, at the time questioning what role, if any, the county should play in funding the trash collections and transfers.
Ultimately, commissioners decided to keep the stations open, but called for a more cost-effective agreement with WCA for 2021.
Graham said the county had a one-year contract with WCA for 2020 with the option to renew, which allows for renegotiations of the contract.
“We’re going to continue to work with the vendor (WCA) to ensure service delivery to the public at the transfer station is sufficient,” she said.
Graham said residents should not dump trash outside the Bayfield Transfer Station during the closure. Alternative disposal sites include the city of Durango Transfer Station and the Bondad landfill.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
