MARSHALL — Increased tipping fees for waste dumped at the Lyon County landfill got approval from Lyon County Commissioners on Tuesday. The fee for waste haulers to bring trash to the landfill will go up $3 next year, to $45 per ton.

The fee increases were discussed at the Regional Landfill Advisory Board’s annual meeting in October, and Advisory Board members had recommended their approval by the county board.

The tipping fee increase is part of efforts to address a long-term financial shortfall projected for the landfill, said Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder. In 2022, engineering consultants showed a need for a tip fee increase of $6 per ton for municipal solid waste. Landfill Advisory Board members recommended that Lyon County commissioners raise tip fees $3 a ton in 2023, and another $3 per ton in 2024.

In addition to the municipal solid waste tip fee, commissioners also approved increases for other tip fees at the landfill. The 2024 fee for soil contaminated with petroleum will be $36.50 per ton. The fee for non-petroleum contaminated soil will be $34.50 per ton. The tip fee for daily cover will be $18 per ton, and the tip fee for construction and demolition waste will be $31 per ton.

County staff said the landfill would still have some of the lowest pricing for similar-sized regional landfills, even with the new tip fees. A chart included in the county board agenda packet on Tuesday compared Lyon County tipping fees – not including surcharges or taxes – to those at other landfills in Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Nebraska. The new $45 per ton tipping fee would put the Lyon County landfill at the same level as landfills in Brookings, S.D., and Blue Earth County. Tipping fees at the Fargo landfill were $46 per ton. At the Kandiyohi County landfill, they were $43.42 per ton.

At the bottom of the range on the chart was the Sheldon, Iowa, landfill, at $35 per ton. The highest tipping fee rate on the chart was at the Rochester landfill, at $83 per ton.