SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Clean-up continues in the Sioux Falls area from the May 12 derecho and it amounts to tens of thousands of pounds of waste.
“About 389 tons of waste had been hauled to the Sioux Falls Regional Landfill as of May 24”, said Ryan Bechtold, an official with the landfill.
If a typical military tank weighs 60 tons, the 389 tons of waste is equal to about 6 1/2 tanks.
That’s about 778,000 pounds of waste divided into three categories.
The biggest weight category is construction and debris waste. Bechtold said 236 vehicles dropped 299 tons of C & D waste at the landfill.
Wood waste, or the waste created when trees are toppled, totaled 57 tons brought in by 70 vehicles.
MSW is garbage with clothes and other miscellaneous items mixed in. The total MSW is 33 tons brought in by 16 vehicles.
Bechtold said the numbers, as of May 24, only include what’s been hauled to the landfill.
“We will know more about those (amounts) once I grind that (waste) down,” he said.
Residents in Sioux Falls can still bring storm wood debris to a collection site until May 31.
The drop-off site located at 12th and North Lyon Boulevard will close at 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and will close at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The most recent major storm in the Sioux Falls area before the derecho was the tornadoes of September 2019.
Those debris numbers are much larger than the May 12 numbers.
Bechtold said 1,174 tons of construction and debris waste was dropped by 366 vehicles at the landfill in 2019. That’s about 3.2 tons per vehicle.
Another 282 tons of MSW was dropped at the landfill by 66 vehicles.
The wood waste totaled 2,055 tons and was dropped by 222 vehicles.