MARSHALL — Lyon County will be going out for bids to develop a new portion of the Lyon County landfill. But while county commissioners gave their approval Tuesday to advertise for the project, a lot of their discussion was focused on a different set of landfill-related issues.

“We need to have a discussion on construction and demolition (landfills),” said Commissioner Rick Anderson. At Monday’s annual meeting of the landfill advisory board, area county commissioners had raised concerns about new state rules possibly closing down many landfills that take construction debris.

The landfill construction project that Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder brought to commissioners on Tuesday wasn’t for construction and demolition landfill purposes. It was for the next phase of the Lyon County landfill. This phase would open up about 4.5 acres of landfill space, he said. According to information shared at the landfill board annual meeting, that 4.5-acre site would have about 506,000 cubic yards of space for municipal solid waste disposal.

Engineering consultants from Burns & McDonnell had prepared bid documents for the next phase of landfill construction, with plans to start construction in 2024.

Commissioners voted to approve the request to advertise for the landfill development construction. However, they also told Schroeder they needed to talk about the possible future of construction and demolition landfills in greater Minnesota.

On Monday, the landfill board had learned that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is going through a rule-making process that would require construction and demolition landfills to be lined. This would help prevent pollutants from seeping out of the landfills and into groundwater. However, the new rules could also shut down about 80 unlined construction landfills ocated in greater Minnesota, presenters at the meeting said.

Schroeder said Lyon County generally transfers construction and demolition waste to Rock County. However, there is an unlined demolition landfill in Lyon County north of Russell, that could be affected by state rule changes. Schroeder said the demolition landfill in Lyon County is used more for debris from old brick or concrete buildings.

Anderson said the county will need to see the rules that come down from the MPCA, and to discuss how to proceed from there.