Otter Tail County secures nearly $8.5 million for waste upgrades

Otter Tail County’s nearly $8.5 million in state funding is aimed at a basic local service residents pay for every week: moving trash, ash and recyclables through a system that covers five counties and large distances. The money is meant to modernize the Prairie Lakes Municipal Solid Waste Authority network, improve hauling and processing efficiency, and ease future pressure on local taxpayers by extending the life of existing disposal sites.

The county said State Sen. Jordan Rasmusson secured $7.267 million through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Solid Waste Capital Assistance Grant Program for the Prairie Lakes Municipal Solid Waste Authority Ash Recovery and Recycling Center project. A separate $1.177 million will come through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources for ash storage and recycling operations in Otter Tail County. Together, the funding supports construction and equipment tied to ash handling, recycling and transfer-station work.

The biggest local link is the Perham Resource Recovery Facility, which has anchored the region’s waste system since it began operating in 1986. Prairie Lakes Municipal Solid Waste Authority became owner and operator of the facility in 2011, after the plant was reconstructed with state grant funding and reopened under the authority’s control in 2002. The authority operates under a joint powers agreement formed in 2010 by Becker, Clay, Otter Tail, Todd and Wadena counties, with Clay County joining in 2014.

Those five counties deliver more than 60,000 tons of solid waste a year to the Perham facility, while Otter Tail County says the plant processes about 54,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually. That process generates roughly 10,000 to 11,000 tons of ash each year, and that ash is now landfilled at the Northeast Otter Tail landfill near New York Mills. County officials said the new project is meant to modernize waste-to-energy ash management, improve operational efficiency and continue using processed ash as road base and for full-depth reclamation work.

Otter Tail County’s board had already approved acquisition of 10 contiguous acres next to the existing ash landfill for processing. LCCMR proposal materials say the ash contains ferrous and non-ferrous metals, along with slag and glass, giving the project a materials-recovery angle as well as a disposal function. The state money is also intended to support long-term operating costs through recovered metals, lower landfilling costs and reduced tipping fees.

For residents in Perham and across the county, the changes will matter most when hauling patterns, landfill use and ash processing start to shift. The improvements are designed to keep the region’s waste system working closer to home, with more material recovered and less of it buried.