Mower County won’t consider solid waste facility permits and requests for the next year after the county board unanimously passed a moratorium on its solid waste ordinance Tuesday.

During that time, county officials will look into a new solid waste policy for the county.

Residents and representatives from SKB Environmental, the company that owns two landfills north of Austin, weighed in on the proposed moratorium Tuesday as well.

“I think it’s a good step in the right direction to try to get control of the situation,” John Ryther, who lives near the SKB dump, said. Ryther and other citizens have come forward with concerns about SKB’s plans to expand its services.

The company’s potential plans include adding mixed solid waste — or household garbage — as well as recycling services to its site, which currently deals with industrial and construction waste.

Talk about the landfill sparked after SKB acquired neighboring Veit Solid Waste Facility last year. Company representatives spoke at a Lansing Township meeting earlier this year about its plans to look into added services.

To accept municipal solid waste, SKB would need approved permits from the county, state and Lansing Township board. For the county, the ordinance is a key guide for regulating all solid waste requests and permits.

Now that no permits will be considered for a year, or until the county board lifts the moratorium, SKB will have to put its plans on hold.

“I really wish that we could have had a good dialogue on this,” John Domke, SKB’s division vice president said.

According to Domke, SKB had planned to submit proposals for single-sort recycling, another issue the county is considering. The waste company also had hoped to line and clean up the former Veit landfill, which houses asbestos.

Residents had been concerned the landfills would potentially contaminate the area’s aquifer. Domke said the only danger to the aquifer could be the asbestos within the Veit site, but the company now can’t do anything about it for the next year due to the moratorium.

One of the biggest concerns, according to Domke, is how Mower County sends its trash out of the county and into Iowa, which he said wasn’t fiscally responsible.

“You’re responsible for your environment, from the cradle to the grave,” he said.

Under SKB’s proposed solid waste and recycling plans, the county could stand to gain $40 million in fees from the state, according to Domke.

Yet county officials had concerns with the way SKB had tried to communicate with commissioners. SKB representatives had wanted to meet with commissioners individually, but County Attorney Kristen Nelsen said such meetings would be considered a serial meeting, or a meeting without the commissioners coming together.

Serial meetings violate Minnesota’s open meeting laws.