The City of Spearfish, South Dakota, operates a Wastewater Treatment Facility that produces biosolid waste similar to Gillette's process.  The City of Spearfish has been unsuccessful marketing the sale of their biosolid waste to the public as a soil amendment. In fact, most of the biosolids produced by the City of Spearfish are disposed in their landfill, resulting in costly landfill tipping fees.

The City of Gillette's biosolid compost program is very popular.  We frequently run out of biosolid compost for sale during certain times of the year.

In an attempt to save cost on landfill tipping fees for Spearfish and provide more biosolid compost product for Gillette, the City of Spearfish and the City of Gillette staff have worked out an agreement for which the City of Spearfish will haul their wastewater biosolid waste to the City of Gillette Wastewater Treatment Facility, at no cost to the City of Gillette, for inclusion within Gillette's biosolid compost operations.  The cost to haul the biosolids from Spearfish to Gillette is more cost-effective for the City of Spearfish, when compared to disposal at their landfill.  The City of Gillette will incorporate Spearfish's biosolids into our compost operations, and will sell the finished biosolid compost to customers at the established rate of $20 per cubic yard.  The City of Gillette could potentially see a revenue increase of approximately $50,000 per year when considering the sale of the additional biosolid compost from Spearfish.

City Staff strongly supports this agreement.