The Scouting Report: A weekly digest
Dry times, Pierre garbage & water, hunting bans, opioid overdoses
The Sioux Falls region closed 2023 with 18.79 inches of precipitation, well below the nearly 26 inches that the city has averaged since record-keeping started in 1891. That made last year the 16th driest year on record.
Lest you worry this be a harbinger of climate change, consider that slightly less precipitation was recorded in 1891, while slightly more was recorded in 1951. Meanwhile, 2019 and 2018 were the two wettest years on record, according to National Weather Service records. The two driest years were 1894 and 1976.
But the 2023-2024 snowfall totals are definitely off to a slow start. Just 2 inches of snow have been registered since the season started on July 1. The normal amount by this time of year is 16.3 inches. In the Brookings area, 1.5 inches of snow have fallen, compared to a normal amount of 12.6 inches, while in Huron 7.5 inches have fallen while the normal amount is 15.6.
Some farmers might be getting nervous.
The average temperature in Sioux Falls during 2023 was 50 degrees, 2.5 degrees above normal. The average maximum temperature was 3 degrees above normal while the average low was nearly 2 degrees above normal.
The city of Pierre will ask the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources for money to expand the Pierre Regional Landfill. The current landfill has three cells for garbage disposal, but development needs to begin on a fourth. The new cell would be bid in 2025, with work expected to be completed later that year.
The city is seeking about $1 million in funding from the state’s Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling Fund and the Clean Water Revolving Fund to assist with engineering and construction.
The city operates a compaction program to maximize landfill space and a recycling program to remove materials from the solid waste stream.
Val Keller, the landfill’s solid waste superintendent, estimates that a new cell will provide capacity for another 14 years.
“After that, we have space for another 10 cells,” Keller said. “We believe they’ll provide capacity for more than 140 years of disposal.”
Senator petitions S.D. Supreme Court to have full Senate privileges restored
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