The proof is in the refuse.

County health department officials saw a spike in use of the Libby landfill in 2020. The increase in trips corresponded with anecdotal reports of an influx of new residents and jump in property sales last year.

Kathi Hooper, health department director, told the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on April 14 that the Libby landfill saw about 63,000 visits from private vehicles last year. The facility took in 42,000 cubic yards of compacted refuse, a roughly 30 percent increase over 2019.

And use did not look to slow down anytime soon.

“We’re continuing to see a lot of traffic coming into this year,” Hooper told commissioners.

That correlates with local land sales. The Montana Regional MLS recorded just 18 closed sales in Lincoln County in March 2020. By contrast, it reported 40 in March of this year. And the average number of days a property stayed on the market declined in the past year.

County Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1) called the data collected by health officials an unexpected indicator of the changes in the area.

“It’s a really good bellwether,” he said. “We talk about the increase of [traffic at] the clerk and recorder’s office. It would be interesting to see if they’re counting the number of customers. It’s just busier. It’s going to impact us in a lot of ways.”

One way is putting the squeeze on space in the Libby landfill. Peck said that even if the local trend turned out to be a blip, that volume of refuse would still flow into the facility.

“Even if it’s a bubble for growth, for your guys’ [purposes], its not a bubble,” he said. “That will be a constant.”

Hooper noted that the influx could mean moving up the schedule on opening a new cell at the landfill. While department employees were planning for that eventuality, officials also were promoting recycling as a way to extend the life of the current cell.

Officials believe the cell will last another nine years.