SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — It’s not quite a busy as 41st Street at rush hour on a Friday, but it’s close.
A steady stream of pickups, side dumpers, dump trucks, and trailers laden with trees and branches destroyed in Tuesday’s storm entered, dumped, then left the drop off facility at Chambers Street and Cliff Avenue in northeast Sioux Falls.
A 650 horsepower grinder grinds up the trees and branches the spews them onto a conveyor belt, which dumps them into waiting semi-trailers. (See video above.)
Don Kuper, the City landfill superintendent, says all of the trees and branches will be ground up and used, either as mulch or to help power ethanol plants. He says none of it will go into the sanitary landfill, saving space. (See video above for more comments from Kuper.)
He says grinding the tree debris greatly reduces their volume.
Inmates from the South Dakota State Penitentiary just up the hill to the north were assisting with the process. He says their help has greatly speeded up how fast they can get vehicles in and out of the facility and on their way.
The City’s tree grinding facilities are located at this location south of the City shops and household waste facility off Cliff and at the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds just north of 12th Street and Lyon Boulevard. Drop off is free. Facility hours are from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through the end of September.
