Dive Summary:

• The Iowa City landfill fire has been burning for two months but the city received good news this week.  The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will not classify burnt material as special waste.
• Designation means that the city will not have to transport burnt material for special disposal.
• The fire, which is believed to have started when hot coals were dumped on the landfill, has been extinguished from the surface but is still believed to be burning beneath a clay layer that is used as a suppressant.  
• The fire is estimated to cost the city between $4-$6 million in damages

From the article:

It may be out of sight to the public, but the fire at the Iowa City landfill remains.

“It’s not out of my mind yet,” Rick Fosse, the city’s public works director, said Tuesday.

City staffers believe the two-month-old fire is out on the majority of the 7.5-acre-section of a landfill cell in which it was contained, but it is burning in spots underneath a clay layer being used as a suppressant, Fosse said.

The city got some good news this week, though. Based on lab results, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said it is not classifying the material that has burned as a “special waste,” Fosse said. That means the city can dispose of it at the landfill rather than taking special precautions and trucking it elsewhere.