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A stew of gypsum wallboard waste and lime sludge may provide the key to the disposal of 65,000 cubic yards of rubble left in the wake of the collapse of Regency companies.

Snyder & Associates Engineers and Planners LLC is coordinating a pilot project to treat the waste in a manner that would allow it to be deposited at the Metro Waste Authority landfill in eastern Polk County.

The project is drawing the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell.

At stake is the disposal of wallboard waste that currently sits in mounds at a former truck stop near Altoona. Lawyer Ed Skinner owns that property and he wants a way to clean it up.

The debris was delivered to the site as part of a failed experiment by a variety of Regency-related companies to process construction and demolition debris.

That project failed and is the subject of a lawsuit alleging fraud in the transfer of a processing center at 1422 Scott Ave. That property currently is owned by a Regency holding company.

At one point, it was assumed that the wallboard waste could be delivered free of charge to the landfill, where it would be used as a cover material.

Metro Waste turned the waste away after it generated a foul smell.

L.D. McMullen, the water resources expert for Snyder & Associates, said the smell results when gypsum breaks down into hydrogen sulfide, producing a rotten-egg odor.

But it causes other problems, too.

Further decomposition produces sulfuric acid, which erodes equipment that processes captured methane gas at the landfill.

“This is not an isolated incident; it is a nationwide problem,” said Mark Wandro, a Snyder & Associates executive vice president.

Wandro said that the partners in the project hope to obtain a $3 million federal grant that would help carry out the project and pay for a test cell that would be dug at the landfill.

Just hauling the material to the landfill is estimated to cost more than $1 million.

“We’re working with the congressional delegation to receive funding,” Wandro said. “They understand the problem, and if we can begin to get our hands around this and find a solution, it certainly would solve a big problem.

“Everybody involved in the recycling of construction debris has this problem.”

The wallboard industry’s trade association says the product generates nearly 14 million tons of waste each year, both from new construction and from rehabilitation projects.

McMullen is a former manager and CEO of the Des Moines Water Works. His answer is to mix in lime sludge that is left over from water treatment to neutralize the gypsum.

His experiment is being carried out in glass laboratory cylinders, but he hopes it can expand to the landfill, where final results might not be known for 20 years.

“Our idea is to take lime sludge from the Water Works and mix it with wallboard in an environment where the bacteria won’t grow,” McMullen said. “Maybe these piles of this ground-up demolition debris can be disposed of in a way that makes everybody happy.”

McMullen said the Water Works also has a disposal problem with the lime sludge, which also is used to fertilize farm fields. However, transportation costs are high.

He noted that other ways to dispose of the wallboard material, such as incineration, are expensive and may not be environmentally sound.

“There are all types of things that we would just as soon not have to do to begin with,” he said. “Demolition debris does have some heating value.

“We have tried that in Iowa, but there are enough plastics and glues in the material that they end up violating their air discharge permits.”

Jeff Dworek, director of operations at the landfill, said that aerial photographs show heavy concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in areas where Metro Waste Authority has accepted construction debris in the past.

“There’s a big difference between where we accept solid waste and where we accept the construction and demolition debris,” he said.