Thanks to a $4 million grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, bio-solid wastes from Logan’s wastewater treatment plant (pictured here) will be processed into agricultural compost at a new regional green waste recycling facility.
LOGAN – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $4 million grant to Logan City on Sept. 13. That funding will provide composting services for bio-solids and yard waste for the city and communities across Cache County.
“The EPA funding pushes our timeline up so that within 18 months we will no longer be landfilling bio-solids from our regional wastewater treatment facility,” according to Issa Hamud, the director of the city’s Environmental Department. “This will help consolidate our green waste facility, save landfill space and avoid carbon emissions from landfilled bio-solids for the next 50 years.”
The grant award to Logan City is part of the agency’s newly created Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Program. Under that effort, the EPA selected 25 communities across the nation to receive grants totaling more than $73 million.
The federal agency is also making available an additional $32 million for states and territories to improve solid waste management planning, data collection and plan implementation.
The EPA grant to Logan is funded by the more than $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in November of 2021.
In addition to $55 billion for environmental and water service upgrades like the recent grant to Logan, that legislation earmarked $550 billion for transportation projects; $110 billion for roads and bridges; $66 billion for freight and passenger rail service; and $65 billion into expanding broadband service.
The EPA grant to Logan will help the city construct a new regional green waste facility which will compost bio-solids, yard waste and other organic waste through new and expanded operations adjacent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, according to KC Becker, the EPA’s regional administrator.
That facility will include new utilities, storm-water pumps, piping and air plenums for aerated static composting; several acres of community gardens and landscaping; a new yard waste facility; and a new access road.
EPA officials say that the new regional green waste facility will greatly expand the composting infrastructure for Logan and Cache County. The facility will also reduce landfill wastes and streamline the management of bio-solids, organics and feed waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Logan officials had originally intended to establish a 10-acre site on city-owned land in Benson where bio-solid waste products from its regional water treatment plant could be mixed with green waste to create agricultural compost.
After two nights of heated public outcry to members of the Cache County Planning Commission and the Cache County Council in April of 2021, however, Logan city officials abandoned that plan in favor of establishing the composting site on city property closer to the Logan Landfill.
In addition to the grants announced Sept. 13 for 25 communities (including Logan), EPA officials say they plan to make similar recycling awards to Indigenous Tribes and intertribal consortia in coming months.
For details about the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program, citizens are advised to visit the EPS webpage at https://epa.gov/infrastructure/swifr.