June 17, 2026
By Tim Hundt
VIROQUA Wis. – The Viroqua Public Works Committee took another major step toward resolving the ongoing methane leak at the closed city landfill by approving a $235,000 engineering services agreement during its June 16 meeting.
The effort is part of a mandated remediation project directed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The site operated as a town dump until it was capped in the early 1990s. Last year the city discovered high levels of methane gas migrating outward through the soil and reaching a nearby church property.
City officials and consultants initially attempted to install a passive venting trench to capture the gas but the natural geology of the area proved too porous to stop the migration. Mike Amstadt from TRC Companies serves as the lead environmental consultant on the project and he previously explained that the fine sand beneath the garbage acts as a wide open pathway for the methane.
“The sand underneath the landfill and the surrounding area is a very fine sand that is very clean,” said Amstadt. “It is allowing gas to when as the gas is building up in the landfill this sand layer is allowing the gas to migrate in all directions.”
To combat the problem the city is shifting to an active gas extraction system which will use a network of underground pipes and large blowers to actively vacuum the methane out of the landfill and safely vent or burn it off. The total cost of the active system is estimated to reach up to $2.5 million.
During the June 16 meeting Amstadt presented the committee with a formal engineering agreement to move the project from the planning phase into actual construction. Amstadt noted that TRC recently submitted the overall work plan to the DNR and the agency responded with only minor comments. He outlined the five specific elements of the new engineering contract which includes drafting the project manual creating the construction plan set providing bid assistance conducting quality assurance observation during construction and writing the final documentation report.
“We divided the project basically up into five parts,” said Amstadt. “We have the project manual which is basically the contract documents and the specifications for the contractors for what needs to be installed out there.”
City Engineer Sarah Grainger asked Amstadt to clarify how the firm structured the proposed costs for the new phase of work.
“I did notice that you have an estimated cost for each element,” said Grainger. “Is that because it is a not to exceed amount and so you will work up to that point or can you walk through that a little bit.”
Amstadt clarified that the figures are currently built around time and material projections.
“They are estimated costs so that is time and material costs,” said Amstadt. “All these are time and material based on what we think it is going to cost.”
Amstadt further explained how they calculated the cost for the construction quality assurance phase based on previous talks with potential builders.
“We budgeted for 13 weeks so under the basis of estimated cost it says that we assume that it is going to be 13 weeks,” said Amstadt. “We got the 13 weeks by talking to a contractor when we were getting preliminary numbers for what the whole project was going to cost whatever that was six eight months ago.”
City Engineer Sarah Grainger supported the overall proposal and noted that the $235,000 fee aligns with industry standards for a project of this massive scale. Grainger pointed out that when combined with the $51,000 the city already spent on preliminary designs the total engineering fees amount to roughly 11 percent of the overall project budget.
“All of those sum up to $235,000 which is usually your engineering is 10 to 15 percent of your total budget,” said Grainger. “Even including that we are still at about 11 percent so I think this seems to be appropriate in terms of cost.”
Because the city is applying for a low interest loan through the United States Department of Agriculture to help fund the multi million dollar project Grainger asked Amstadt to make a minor adjustment to the contract language. Grainger explained that the federal agency requires specific pricing structures for the design portion of the engineering work.
Amstadt agreed to modify the language to meet the federal loan requirements. He also noted to the committee that he has actively discounted his own firm fees to assist the city throughout the lengthy abatement process.
“If it matters I do not know if the council has known this but I have been giving a deduction for my labor rate since the beginning of the project and I am continuing that on this portion of the project as well,” said Amstadt. “We are giving a deduction on the field staff trying to be respective of the city dollars.”
Committee Chairperson Cyndy Hubbard expressed gratitude for the financial consideration. Grainger added that the sheer size of the remediation is financially daunting for Viroqua.
“It is an expensive project,” said Grainger. “There is no two ways about it that is for sure.”
With the contract adjustments secured the committee members voiced their full support for the next phase of the project. Alderperson AJ Bergum formalized the committee endorsement with a unanimous vote to approve the agreement.
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