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4/14/2025
City, landfill owner dispute liability for construction costs
The city of Great Falls has objected to a sudden fee increase for dumping trash at the High Plains Landfill, which is owned and operated by Republic Services.
In negotiating a contract extension with the city of Great Falls, Republic requested additional fees to cover the costs of building a gas collection system, which was completed last year. The city says the fee increase is unjustified and violates the contract.
Republic charges the city by the ton of refuse dumped at the landfill north of Great Falls. The contract, signed in 2016, said that annual increases would follow the consumer price index. Those increases have ranged from a low of 1.4% in 2021 to a high of 7% in 2023 amid broad inflation nationwide. For 2025, Republic asked for an increase of 16.75%.
That’s a jump from the 2024 fee of $33.44 per ton to $39.05 this year, according to city documents. The majority of the increase is meant to cover $1.67 million that Republic says is the city’s obligation toward its new gas collection system.
Large landfills emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, though it’s methane that has received the most attention. According to the EPA, municipal solid waste landfills accounted for more than 14% of U.S. methane emissions in 2022 — equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 24 million gasoline-powered cars.
The EPA mandates gas collection systems on landfills of a certain size. The agency fined a Republic landfill in New York last year after it had underreported emissions and should have built a collection system at the site.
In regulatory filings, Republic said that more than 87% of its landfill acreage was covered by a gas collection system by the end of 2024. At some sites, the gas is converted to electricity or natural gas power. At the High Plains Landfill, the collected gas is burned off in a flare on site, according to the company. The company said the construction and maintenance cost $5.2 million and that Great Falls’ share of that cost is $1.67 million based on its share of landfill use. The fee increase proposed for 2025 was based on a 10-year payoff for those project costs.
Republic has cited a federal regulation dating back to 2016 as the mandate for the gas collection system. That date proved crucial as the city and Republic have debated whether the contract allows the company to charge the city for that construction.
A clause in the contract between Great Falls and Republic says that the city will reimburse Republic for expenses resulting from federal, state or local regulations. Republic contends this requires Great Falls to pay up. But the contract also says those regulations had to take effect after the contract became effective. The federal regulation is dated August 2016 while the contract was signed December 2016.
The city argued that this timing means it is off the hook. In a letter sent to Republic in late March, Great Falls City Attorney David Dennis outlined this position and said that Republic never warned the city of the upcoming expenses and that the company didn’t respond to a long list of questions about the project’s financing and planning. Those questions noted that Republic appeared to calculate the city’s share of the project cost based on one year of landfill usage rather than a multi-year average.
“…Your actions suggest that Republic is simply grasping for any basis, whether justified or not, to significantly increase charges to the city, and by extension, to the citizens of Great Falls,” Dennis wrote in the letter.
Asked to comment on the interpretations of the landfill contract, Republic spokesperson Melissa Quillard said only that the company believes the increase is allowed by contract.
The matter isn’t yet resolved, according to city officials.
On April 1, City Sanitation Manager Ross Bartell proposed an 8% increase in residential trash pickup and a 10% increase for commercial service for the next fiscal year.
3 questions for
The City-County Health Department (CCHD) of Cascade County reports that there were no cases of measles in the county as of April 1 as new cases pop up elsewhere in the country. Montana Free Press reached out to Ben Spencer, CCHD communication and privacy officer, to learn more about how the department is monitoring the situation.
What happens behind the scenes at the City-County Health Department when a virus like measles is spreading elsewhere but is not yet detected locally?
We know that communicable disease outbreaks can be catastrophic, and we prepare to take a lead role in any response efforts. Our staff is trained in public health emergency response, conducts practice events every year and is ready to implement our Emergency Response Plan whenever needed. As a part of that, we have an internal surveillance team of subject matter experts from different program areas of the department, communicating daily to monitor for any unusual illnesses or possible outbreaks in the community, coordinate case investigations and to plan how to respond. We also convene a larger community-wide surveillance group that includes Alluvion, Benefis, Great Falls Clinic, Indian Family Health Clinic, Best Med, GF EMS, Malmstrom, Great Falls Public Schools (GFPS), Great Falls Fire Rescue and more. This allows us to have key contacts to regularly share surveillance information, conduct mock exercises and plan for events.
To prepare for any measles outbreak, we have been working closely with school staff to discuss what a response might look like across the district. GFPS and CCHD have sent letters out to the families of school students, as well as daycare providers and school administrators outside GFPS. Those letters let parents know about the risks, what symptoms to watch for in their children and what to expect if any cases are confirmed. We have also notified health care providers about testing and reporting of suspected cases so they can be identified quickly. CCHD and other state and local health departments coordinate and share information regularly to make sure we are putting out consistent and accurate information across Montana, even if the specifics of an outbreak response might look a little different in each community. CCHD is prepared with vaccine supplies to meet an increased demand and, if needed, would be able to quickly set up a drive-thru measles testing operation.
Montana does not track vaccination data at the state level. How does that impact the department’s work and what vaccination data are available at the local level?
We still have a pretty good idea of our local rates — historically they have been very similar to the national levels, or maybe a little lower. GFPS has provided us with data on the number of students with religious or medical exemptions and how many have no shot record on file. CCHD also has access to Montana’s electronic record of immunizations, imMTrax, and can check individual Montana immunization records as needed. There are some limits to imMTrax. It doesn’t have records from other states, the military or certain health care providers, and some older records might not be in there. So it’s important to always keep copies of your own records. But knowing the exact statewide percentage doesn’t really change our advice, which is for everyone to get all the shots recommended by the CDC on the regular schedule. An unvaccinated person exposed to measles may be required to stay home for up to 21 days after exposure, which can be especially tough if a parent has to miss work to care for their child for those three weeks.
What personal and community health steps can people take if they are concerned about measles?
The best way to prevent measles is to get vaccinated. The measles vaccine is 97% effective. And by choosing to vaccinate, you are not only protecting yourself but also others in your community who may not be able to vaccinate due to age or medical status. If you’re not sure whether you’ve had a measles shot, you can contact CCHD to check your records. It’s also important to watch yourself and your children for any symptoms of measles, which you can learn about at the CDC website. If you do develop symptoms, contact your doctor to get tested. Make sure to call your doctor’s office before going in, because measles spreads very easily indoors, and they will want to take precautions to avoid exposing others.
5 things to know in Great Falls
Registration opens on Tuesday for summer camps at the Scheels Aim High Big Sky Aquatic and Recreation Center. Programs for youth and adults include swim lessons, group exercise, and lifeguard classes. A full list of classes is available here.
On April 4, the Air Force held a ceremony to activate a detachment that will oversee the transition to the Sentinel nuclear missile system at Malmstrom. Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere gave remarks and stressed the massive logistical challenge in making a transition for the land-based leg of the country’s nuclear triad. Bussiere also confirmed Lt. Col. John Mayer as the commander of the Malmstrom detachment for Air Force Global Strike Command. In comments to the press, Mayer said that the Air Force is still very much in the planning and development stages of the transition. Defense outlets reported in February about pauses in some work related to Sentinel, which has experienced delays and cost overruns.
The Great Falls Voyagers is hiring gameday staff. Anyone interested can find contact information on this social media post. The first game of the season is May 20, and the first home game of the season is set for May 27.
The Great Falls City Commission will hold public hearings on Tuesday to consider a conditional use permit for storage containers on Upper River Road, the use of tax increment financing funds for parking garage signs, and revising fees related to business licensing and code enforcement. The commission will also consider funding improvements to the Great Falls Fire Rescue training center, which you can read about here.
The Great Falls Historic Preservation Advisory Commission is raising funds to stabilize and preserve the Boston and Montana barn near Black Eagle. The ailing barn is the last-standing structure from the Anaconda Copper Mining Company smelter operations that dominated the north shore of the Missouri River a century ago. The commission hopes to raise at least $300,000 to stabilize a portion of the barn. The nonprofit organization Cascade Preservation has agreed to take donations and set up a fund. Donations can be sent to PCI for Barn Project, PO Box 1673, Great Falls, MT 59403.
