JACKSON -- Three months after its sanitary landfill was closed, the city of Jackson is waiting on Allied Waste Management to open a solid waste transfer station at the old landfill site.

Meanwhile, the director of the Jackson Utilities and Public Works Department said the lack of a solid waste transfer station creates maintenance problems as the department tries to keep its fleet of waste collection trucks in operation.

In April, Jackson signed a 20-year lease with Allied Waste Management to take over the operation of the city's sanitary landfill and convert it into an EPA-approved regional landfill.

Tests conducted by Allied after the contract was signed indicated the landfill was not suitable for a regional, EPA-approved landfill.

Instead, Allied Waste Management closed the landfill in early April and said it would build a solid waste transfer station at the landfill site; all solid waste would be transferred to Allied's new, EPA-approved regional landfill near Dexter.

Three months later, the city still waits for the transfer station.

On Friday, Joe Duncan, chief of the permits section of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Solid Waste Management Division, said the agency has not received any application for a permit to build a transfer station at Jackson.

The Southeast Missourian was unable to contact Allied Waste Management's Dexter manager to determine when the firm plans to apply for the permit.

Duncan said the only application the DNR has received from the Cape Girardeau area is from Continental Waste Management of Cape Girardeau. That application -- received June 15 -- is for a proposed solid waste transfer station near Leemon, several miles east of Jackson.

Duncan said after the DNR receives an application for a permit to operate a solid waste transfer station, it takes anywhere from 120 days to six months for the permit to be issued. He said, "The technical review process by the DNR includes a public notice and time period for public comment on the proposed transfer station. In most cases, we've been able to issue a permit in a lot less than the six month maximum."

Jackson City Attorney David Beeson said until the Jackson transfer station is opened, the city is paying what he termed a very low tipping fee at Allied's Dexter regional landfill. Beeson said the tipping fee was included when the city negotiated the long-term lease contract with Allied earlier this year.

Beeson said he has been told Allied Waste Management has on hand a portable building and the necessary compaction equipment needed to operate the transfer station. He said, "As soon as they receive their DNR permit, the building can be assembled and the equipment installed."

Brown said he hopes the transfer station will be opened as soon as possible.

"Without the transfer station, our solid waste collection trucks must make over 20, 100-mile-plus round-trips per week to the Allied landfill at Dexter," said Brown.

"It takes about three hours per trip because our trucks have to wait in line after they get to the landfill with other solid waste trucks to unload.

"It's really eating up a lot of time and manpower, and putting a lot of extra miles on trucks that were never designed to travel at high, over-the-road speeds. Our solid waste trucks were built for frequent start and stops at slow speeds on city streets. The most they can do on the highway with a full load is 50 mph."

Brown said the city has four solid waste collection trucks. He added, "Normally, we always have two of the trucks on the road to the Dexter landfill every day of the week. That leaves the other two trucks to run the daily commercial and residential pickup routes, Monday through Friday. If we have a major breakdown or some other maintenance problem, it really throws our already tight schedule completely out of whack.

"Our solid waste drivers, and public works maintenance people, are doing an outstanding job ... to keep the trucks in operation. So far, we've managed to meet the challenge."

Brown said another factor that has to be considered if the transfer station is not built is the approach of winter, and bad weather. He said, "I've been told the transfer station will be in operation before fall, but to be prepared, we're making some contingency plans. I'm hoping we won't have to put the plans into effect."