Valley City avoids $2M landfill fee by treating contaminated soil locally

VALLEY CITY, N.D. — Valley City faced a hiccup in construction of the city’s new public service center after petroleum was found in the soil.

The former home of the Valley Plains car dealership is now city-owned. Soil tests were done during excavation in June, and the city has since started the treatment process.

Increased levels of petroleum at the site of the Valley City service center forced the city to treat or dispose of the soil. A state-approved remedy will save the city millions of dollars and keep the fix local.

“You can either take that and they call it land treatment, or also farming the land. Or the other option is you can take it to a designated, authorized landfill,” said Gwen Crawford, city administrator.

The closest available landfill is in Gwinner. To take the dirt there would cost $2 million. Instead, the city decided to treat the soil in a designated area in Valley City, costing just $300,000. That fix also fell within their budget constraints.

“We did have some contingencies in there, in the project, because we knew there were some unknowns, but it wouldn’t have handled something like $2 million,” Crawford said.

The dirt that needs to be treated meets requirements from the state Department of Environmental Quality to stay in town. The worst areas sit at 608 parts per million, well below the DEQ’s threshold.

“This is a great product or a situation for the land farming. We’re an ideal candidate for it. We found something that is well within our budget to farm this out. And I think we’re doing the right thing,” said Clint Klemisch, public works operations superintendent.

The contaminated dirt is not returning to the original construction site. New dirt is already arriving, and the project is not facing delays.

“As we’re doing the work, as we’re excavating, those levels do show up and contaminants show up, and we were ready to go. We had the plans in place. We had the budget, and you work it as you go,” Klemisch said.

The city is also managing the contamination removal using different tools to avoid any runoff from the treatment area. Valley City is continuing to brainstorm how they’ll use the dirt once the petroleum is removed.

Ryan McNamara joined WDAY as a reporter in late 2024. He is a native of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2024.


His time as a Husky included copious amounts of time spent at “The Herb” reporting on Husky hockey, or at Halenbeck Hall calling Husky basketball. He also spent two summers with the Northwoods League’s St. Cloud Rox. Along with his duties in news and sports, Ryan dons a headset for occasional play-by-play broadcasts for North Dakota and Minnesota high school sports.


When he’s away from the station, he’s most likely lifting, finding time to golf, or taking in as much college basketball as possible, in order to complete the elusive perfect March Madness bracket.