Boulder County, Colorado, considers construction of compost processing facility

Boulder County, Colorado, is proposing the creation of a composting facility on 40 acres of county-owned land at the former Rainbow Nursery south of Longmont, reports the Longmont Times-Call. 

That potential compost processing facility site lies a distance south of Colo. 52 on the east side of U.S. 287. Studies, design and planning for development of such a facility at that proposed location are still in very preliminary stages, county officials said.

“It’s all conceptual,” Boulder County Public Works Department spokesman Andrew Barth said Oct. 5 about the current status of the planning, design, and construction of the project — a project he said has an estimated $7 million price tag.

According to a Boulder County website’s description of the project, “the creation and implementation of the compost facility will help achieve our goal of ‘Zero Waste or Darn Near by 2025’ by capturing 20 percent to 30 percent of compostable county waste and increasing landfill diversion by 5 percent to 10 percent. The compost generated will be provided for area agricultural uses, which will help increase local, sustainable food production.”

The facility is currently being designed “to accept waste from commercial haulers, but there may be future opportunity for residential drop-off. The compost material generated will primarily be used for agricultural purposes, but there may be opportunity for residential use in the future.”

Boulder County bought the former Rainbow Nursery in April 2018, paying $985,000 for the land and associated water rights, according to minutes of an April 26, 2018, report that was made to the Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee.

The county on its websites and Barth in his Oct. 5 interview did not have definite timelines or specific dates for when decisions might be scheduled for the steps needed to proceed with the composting project, although they noted the project will need future sign-offs by the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Boulder County Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners.

According to the Times-Call, Barth said that even if those approvals are attained, officials don’t foresee construction of the facility to begin until next summer or fall and its completion until sometime in 2022.

The current overall budget for the project is about $7 million, but “a more refined and comprehensive estimate will be developed later in design development,” said Barth.

If the project proceeds, its costs would be covered by part of the revenues from a voter-approved Boulder County 0.125 percent sales and use tax the county spends on sustainability projects and programs.