Lincoln County Commissioner Robert King said five counties are working together to transport some waste in landfills to a new landfill that is set to be built near Soda Springs, Idaho.

He says last month a verbal approval for a USDA grant of $20 million to help purchase the property and establish the landfill. He also says a group will meet this Wednesday to work with the bank on completing that purchase.

“It will save the county quite a bit of money,” King said.

He says for now they are looking at transporting the waste from the Thayne landfill and probably Cokeville. Right now he is not sure about the economics with Kemmerer.

“But the one thing it does do is it stretches the life of the Kemmerer Landfill out by not taking out the refuse from Star Valley and Cokeville,” King said. “That saves us a lot of money in the long run as well.”

He believes there are still more steps involved and so he cannot put a timeline on it. However, he said he is hoping for at least to see it done in 2020.

He also says this should be a pretty seamless process for the community.

“The only difference is the trucks will headed over to Soda Springs which is quite a bit shorter haul than going to Kemmerer,” King said.