New commercial fee will soon go into effect at Jefferson County landfill
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RIGBY – A new fee will soon be implemented at the Circular Butte Landfill in Terreton.
The Jefferson County Solid Waste District notified residents in a letter dated Sept. 28 that a commercial hauler tipping fee has been added to the solid waste fee schedule.
“All commercial haulers will be charged a tipping fee of $40 per ton whether waste is generated in-county or out-of-county,” the letter reads.
Although the fee was originally set to go in effect on Oct. 15, Jefferson County Commission’s spokeswoman Kimberly Murphy tells EastIdahoNews.com its implementation has since been pushed back to Dec. 15 to give businesses and other cities within the county time to adjust.
Murphy says the fee was approved at a public hearing on Sept. 28 after residents had a chance to weigh in.
County residents pay a household fee when they file their taxes, which covers the basic operating costs of the landfill. Public Works Director Mike Carter says commercial haulers who dump 10 to 15 tons at once have substantially more than the typical load, and dealing with it requires additional funding.
“We used to get a lot of commercial haulers coming from different counties. Then the tri-county landfill opened up (in Newdale) last year. Our revenue has decreased by $1.65 million, and we needed a way to make that up,” Murphy says.
The landfill in Newdale, which serves Madison, Fremont, Teton and Clark counties, was completed in 2025 after 15 years of work. Its governing board, the East Idaho Regional Solid Waste District, celebrated its completion in May.
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Before its creation, the County Line Landfill in Jefferson County accepted waste from these four counties. Today, the County Line Landfill is only for commercial construction dumping, and similar fees are already in effect at that location.
In the past, at the Circular Butte Landfill, Murphy says the Jefferson County Solid Waste District was only charging for trash that came from outside the county. The new fee will cover all commercial dumping to offset a decrease in revenue.
Similar changes elsewhere
Similar fees have been implemented in Fremont and Bonneville counties, and Murphy says Jefferson County’s fees are the lowest of the three.
Fremont County Public Works Director Brandon Harris was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but Bonneville County’s Solid Waste District Manager Blair Hillam says a new use fee was approved during the Bonneville County commissioners’ budget hearing on Aug. 27.
Once a renovation project at the Bonneville County Transfer Station is complete in March, that county will begin charging 4 cents a pound across the scale for anyone who drops off garbage. It’s an addition to the annual taxes paid by residents.
“We decided to do that instead of raising the annual solid waste fee on the taxes,” Hillam says.
The goal, according to Hillam, is fairness. Some residents drop off garbage frequently and others don’t and they want to make sure the costs match the frequency of use for each household.
They hope to eventually reduce the annual tax rate and raise the use fee so that it’s more of a “pay-as-you-use” transaction.
“We’re hoping that 4 cents a pound across the scale creates more revenue so that we can lower that annual fee,” he says.
The renovation at the transfer station got underway on Sept. 19 and is slated to last 180 days. Hillam says it’s focused on reducing and improving the flow of traffic with an automated lane. Rather than having an employee handle all transactions, residents will insert a card on the way out. The scale will also be moved off the road and farther inside the property.
Hillam says there will be a solid waste summit as renovations are winding down to educate the public on the changes.
