A pair of court filings show a privately owned landfill at the center of a legal showdown with Elmore County is struggling to keep the lights on — or they might already be off.
Earlier this year, filings in Idaho’s Fourth District Court from both a bank that loaned Idaho Regional Waste Services funds and from some of the company’s own members show financial struggles at Simco Road Regional Landfill operator, a private landfill. This follows the county revoking the conditional use permit for the landfill and shutting it down following a series of ‘constant violations’ over the improper disposal of tires last August.
IRWS then filed a federal lawsuit against Elmore County, alleging the company’s rights were violated when the landfill was shut down. Judge David Nye dismissed the suit last December. The company appealed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in January. A countersuit filed by Elmore County in district court against the company for alleging continuing to operate after the CUP was revoked is still ongoing.
HOA sues residents for operating in-home businesses
Now, since the landfill has been shuttered, the company is “currently insolvent or is otherwise in imminent danger of insolvency,” according to an April 1 legal filing from four members of the company against the other two and IRWS itself.
BoiseDev called IRWS to comment on this story, but the number on the company’s website was disconnected.
Unpaid bills on bank loan
At the end of February, Oregon-based Umpqua Bank came to collect.
The bank filed a complaint in Ada County’s Fourth District Court naming a dozen people linked to IRWS, saying the company failed to make payments on a $12 million loan it obtained from Columbia Bank, which later merged with Umpqua, in the summer of 2020. Part of the agreement included roughly four and a half years of nearly $100,000 monthly payments back to the bank, plus one principal and interest payment of $9.2 million on August 1, 2025.
This loan was to finance the purchase of the landfill from its previous owner, according to the second filing from four of its six members.
The bank approved another loan in November 2021 of $250,000, which would be paid back with interest using 35 monthly payments of $7,437 starting at the end of 2022. This loan, and the required payments, were doubled in the summer of 2022 to $500,000.
The problems paying these loans back hit soon after the landfill was shuttered, according to Umpqua Bank’s filing. It said as of February 6, the company had missed payments in December and January owing $204,214.91, plus outstanding fees and costs. The bank’s filing at the end of February said the net unpaid balance due to the bank was $10.7 million, which includes the principal of the loan, interest, late charges, legal fees and other costs. The company also owed another $314,206 for another loan.
The case is still pending.
IRWS members file to unwind the company
The financial troubles at the company appear to have split the company’s members.
At the beginning of April, four of the company’s six members filed in court to order IRWS dissolved and to appoint a third party, known as a receiver, to oversee the company’s finances due to its status as “currently insolvent or is otherwise in imminent danger of insolvency.” The filing came from Montana companies Koppinger Investments, Timber Canyon-MT LLC, 2CK Investments LLC and Idaho company Jeff and Son LLC and was filed against IRWS itself, Idaho-based Valerian LLC and Simco Venture Fund LLC.
The filing said IRWS’s primary goal as a business was to operate the Simco Road Regional Landfill with its affairs run by a four-member board of directors and a slate of officers. But, now that Elmore County revoked the conditional use permit for the landfill and closed it, the four members say nearly all of IRWS’s affairs are illegal.
“The revocation of IRWS’s CUP was the direct result of the board’s and/or officer’s oppressive actions that have harmed, and will continue to harm, the (group of companies filing in court) and their respective members,” the filing said.
The April filing said the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality ordered IRWS to begin closing the landfill in November in order to meet a deadline of May 5, but the company’s board and officers “have failed to undertake any closure activities.” The four members also say IRWS’s leadership mismanaged the company’s finances and hasn’t paid back the money owed to Umpqua Bank.
The four IRWS members argue there is “a genuine controversy” over whether IRWS the company has been dissolved because its agreement said it would be dissolved if its business cannot be lawfully operated. But, the filing said the board and its officers “have done nothing to commence or undertake the wind-up process.”
The filing asked the court to order the business to be dissolved, appoint a receiver to oversee the closure of the company and fulfillment of its obligations at the landfill.
