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LOGAN — The Environmental Protection Agency this week announced that Cache County will be the beneficiary of $4 million to develop a Regional Green Waste Facility in Logan.
The move is part of the Biden-Harris administration's Investing in America agenda, a public and private infrastructure investment, which seeks to bring manufacturing back to America, create new jobs and rebuild roads and bridges throughout the U.S.
Along with the $4 million to the Logan facility, the EPA is granting Utah access to $652,000 to improve solid waste management planning and data collection across the state.
"EPA's Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling funds are helping communities across the nation reuse waste and reduce local and global environmental impacts," EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said in a statement. "These new facilities will serve Logan and Cache County residents for many years to come."
The facility, which will sit adjacent to the city's wastewater treatment plant, will provide composting services for biosolids — products of the wastewater treatment process, also known as sewage sludge — along with yard waste and other organic waste for Logan and other Cache County communities.
Additionally, the project will include new utilities, stormwater pumps, piping and air plenums for aerated static composting; several acres of community gardens and landscaping; a new yard waste facility and a new access road for the facility.
The agency says the facility will expand Logan and Cache County's composting infrastructure, reduce landfill waste and better manage biosolids, organics and food waste, in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"We are grateful for the EPA funding to complete our biosolids composting facility," Issa Hamud, Logan's environmental department director, said in a statement. "The EPA funding pushes this timeline up so that within 18 months we will no longer be landfilling biosolids from the regional wastewater treatment facility. This will help consolidate our green waste facility, save landfill space and avoid carbon emissions from landfilled biosolids for the next 50 years."
The grant that makes the construction of the facility possible is part of the EPA's newly created Solid Waste for Recycling funding opportunity. Along with Logan, the EPA selected 25 other communities across the U.S. to receive grants totaling more than $73 million. In addition, the agency is making available approximately $32 million for states and territories to improve solid waste management planning, data collection and plan implementation.
The program is also advancing the Justice40 Initiative, an environmental justice initiative that aims to ensure that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.
