Garbage piling high as pickup resumes

• Garbage

Steve Hauge collects garbage along his route Monday in north Fargo as service resumes after being suspended during the flood fight. Photo by David Samson / The Forum

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By lunchtime Monday, Steve Gustafson had already tossed about 8½ tons of trash into his city garbage truck, compared with 6 to 7 tons during a typical full day at this time of year.

He understandably needed a little boost.

“Grabbed a Red Bull here after lunch,” he said, pointing to the pick-me-up sitting in his cup holder.

Fargo resumed regular trash collection Monday after suspending it for two weeks to concentrate on the flood fight, and the proof was in the mounds of trash on boulevards.

At one stop on 18th Avenue North near Elm Street, Gustafson chucked 19 bags and eight boxes and emptied a Rubbermaid trash can into the truck’s hopper.

“It’ll be a long week,” he said.

Fargo’s usual fleet of 11 one-man garbage trucks was reinforced with two two-man trucks Monday to handle the extra trash, said Delmar Ruff, route supervisor for the city’s Solid Waste Department.

Fargo’s last garbage collection was the week ending March 20. During the off weeks, residents brought about 30 tons of trash to the landfill, but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared with the roughly 500 tons per week the city picks up, Ruff said.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us, that’s for sure,” he said.

Moorhead also resumed regular residential trash pickup Monday.

City Operations Director Chad Martin asked that residents living adjacent to the river not put flood-related trash out on the boulevard, as it will interfere with the Army Corps of Engineers’ construction of contingency dikes.

Residents may pile the items in their front yards or take them directly to

Tags: spring flood 2009, red river, news, flood, garbage, flood, weather, fargo, moorhead