Grand County officials are continuing to monitor the landslide at the Granby landfill, though they believe it is more or less contained.

The county has finished installing a large plastic tarp to cover part of the landfill, which officials believe will prevent snowmelt and rainwater from exacerbating the slide area.

“The movement has slowed down immensely from the start,” said Lurline Underbrink Curran, county manager. “This year with high water it didn’t move nearly as much as it had in years before.”

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The county is now in the process of installing a fence around the area to prevent animals from puncturing the cover, which would compromise its integrity, said Ken Haynes with Grand County Road & Bridge.

“We’ve done our best to address the slide area, and the state accepted our plan. Now it’s a matter of us really keeping an eye on it.”
Lurline Underbrink
Curran Grand County manager

Curran said the county is hoping to fulfill the state’s requirement for closure by the end of the year.

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All in all, the county has spent over $7 million on the landfill since 2007, including $5 million for a landfill stabilization analysis, said Scott Berger, county finance director.

The Granby landfill has been closed to the public since 2010.

Initial costs for mitigating the landslide ranged from $8 million to $30 million, with the most expensive option being relocating the waste to the landfill in Kremmling, which the county is also in the process of closing.

Haynes said consultants and county officials determined that covering the crack would prevent the slide from moving further.

“We’ve done our best to address the slide area, and the state accepted our plan,” Curran said. “Now it’s a matter of us really keeping an eye on it.”

The county has budgeted around $135,000 for the landfill for 2015, which Curran said would go toward fulfilling monitoring requirements for the state.

The state requires monthly and quarterly well testing, though Haynes said someone from his department would be monitoring the site weekly in order to catch any possible failure of the tarp.

Haynes said the county would be required to monitor the site for 30 years.

In addition, the county has to develop a backup plan in case the tarp fails, Curran said.

The backup plan would include a more expensive cylinder pile wall, which would be comprised of large reinforced concrete retaining walls.

Hank Shell can be reached at 970-887-3334 ext. 19610.