Sanitary District Powers Include Contracting for Garbage Pick-up

While looking up some information on sanitary district powers, I came upon this really interesting 1980 opinion from Attorney General Mark Meierhenry that says South Dakota sanitary districts can contract for collection of solid waste... i.e., garbage!

South Dakota Codified Law authorizes sanitary districts "to construct and operate storm and sanitary sewers and sewage and solid waste disposal plants and systems" (SDCL 34A-5-26). In my tenure on the board, I've never paid much attention to the "solid waste" portion of that clause. The folks up at Lake Poinsett did, however. Evidently the development association wanted to hand over responsibilty for contracting garbage hauling to the sanitary district. Their attorney checked with Pierre, and Pierre said go for it.

Now the idea of collecting garbage through the sanitary district has never come up, at least not in meetings I've attended. But if a central sewer is unrealistic, perhaps trash pickup is a beneficial service the district could offer. Anyone interested?