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No Time to Waste
Cat® machines keep Louisiana landfill humming
Located in the valley of the Sabine River on the border with Texas, Sabine Parish was carved from Natchitoches Parish and established in 1843.
Located just 30 minutes from Natchitoches, Fort Jesup provides a glimpse of life when Louisiana was part of the nation’s frontier. The Louisiana Office of State Parks historic site features the original field kitchen, a replica of an officers’ quarters which serves as a museum and visitors center, and offers interpretive programs.
Sabine Parish was the scene of the last major Civil War engagement in Louisiana, which was fought April 9, 1864, at old Pleasant Hill and along the Sabine-DeSoto Parish line. The battle took place the following day after the Confederate victory at Mansfield. The action forced the withdrawal of Federal troops along the Shreveport- Natchitoches road, which cut across the northeast section of the parish.
The economy of present-day Sabine Parish, with more than 24,200 residents, is based on cattle, poultry, and the manufacture of wood products. Its 1,008 square miles contain some of the finest timber in the world.
Sabine Parish is also rich in other natural resources, and is popularly referred to as Toledo Bend Country, for its 186,000-acre, man-made reservoir filled with bass, bream, crappie and catfish. Toledo Bend Reservoir was constructed in the mid-1960s to provide power and recreation to the Louisiana/Texas border at Sabine River.
Landfill Operation
On March 1, Sabine Parish assumed ownership and operation of a sanitary landfill in the town of Zwolle. The 247-acre landfill takes in an average of 750 to 800 tons of waste per day, but less during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to standard refuse collection, the landfill takes in special waste, including liquids from oil field production.
The landfill has been operated by a variety of national waste disposal contractors over the last 35 years and was most recently operated by private contractor Waste Connections. Last fall, the police jury hired Pete Chreene as landfill manager based on his 17 years of experience working at the landfill.
Recognizing the need for new equipment, Chreene contacted his Cat® dealer and initiated the acquisition process. Beginning last October, Louisiana Cat delivered an 826K Landfill Compactor, a 330F L Hydraulic Excavator, a D6T Dozer with an oversize blade and two 725C2 Articulated Trucks.
Landfill equipment operators use the Cat 330 for excavating cover material and the 725 Articulated Trucks for hauling the soil, which is used in solidifying liquid waste and for cover material on the cells. Despite its modest size, Sabine Parish solidifies more liquid waste than any other landfill in the state, combining it with fly ash that is transported from Lake Charles and other locations.
Over the years, Chreene has used different brands of excavators, and has experienced numerous breakdowns. The Cat excavator increases operating efficiency, lowers fuel and maintenance costs, and improves operator comfort compared to other models. A reputation for durability is a main reason why he chose Cat equipment when he was named landfill manager.
“Caterpillar has always been on their game,” Chreene says. “I work the machines hard—they never got to breathe. Over the years, it’s been a process of trial and error operating different brands of equipment. So, once we got past all of that, we went with Cat machines and have stuck with them because we know we can run them hard and they just keep going. When the parish got involved here, it was not even a question—they bought all Cat equipment.”
“Productivity is the key,” Chreene adds. “We need good dependable machines that we can rely on, because when a machine goes down, your production stops. And I can’t afford that here with the non-stop flow of waste material. So, we have to have equipment that we can work hard and depend on five days a week, 13 hours a day.”
The Cat D6T Dozer is equipped with a Waste Handler/ Landfill Arrangement that offers specialized guarding, striker bars and seals to help protect the machine from impact and airborne/wrapping debris so prevalent in landfills. The D6T has an elevated sprocket, rugged structures and proven systems that provide long life and durability.
Sabine Parish utilizes a D6T elevated sprocket high-drive machine.
“The high drive in the waste industry is the way to go, or you will be spending a whole lot of time on the ground cleaning tracks, rather than in the machine taking care of your waste handling needs,” Chreene says.
Operator Comfort
Ease of operation and operator comfort are hallmarks of the new Cat machines.
“Most of our operators come from the coal mine,” Chreene says. “So from the years where they started learning how to operate to the level this new equipment is at now, I’ve told my wife so many times, ‘These guys don’t know how much they have it made.’ These machines are so nice and comfortable to operate.”
“When I started years ago, we didn’t have A/C,” he continues. “It was an open cab machine. It’s amazing how far the technology has come and how much smoother the machines are to operate. The simple things like having the air in it just make the job so much easier.”
The cab in the D6T is designed for operator productivity and comfort. The isolation-mounted, pressurized cab reduces noise and vibration. Large windows, tapered hood, notched fuel tank and narrow single-shank ripper carriage give the operator a clear line of sight to front and rear work areas.
“The operator is in the cab all day long, so it’s a nice feature to have that escape from the heat and the outside noise,” Chreene says. “There’s a lot of features designed into that cab that no other competitor offers from safety on down. In the waste-handling business, nobody can compete with the Cat waste handler—they just can’t.”
Dealer Support
Technicians from Louisiana Cat perform preventive maintenance on the machines at regular 250-hour intervals. In order to keep his fleet in peak operating condition, Chreene is in regular communication with Vince Meadows, the service manager at the Louisiana Cat Alexandria location.
All of the machines include Cat Product LinkTM, which provides real-time information on the status and operating health of the machines.
“Everybody’s on the same page here,” Chreene says. “If something goes wrong, they can pull it right up at the dealership and let me know what’s going on. And that’s most important when you have front-line machines that you’re depending on. If you don’t have that, you’re going to have a lot of downtime, which is something you can’t afford in this business.”
Louisiana Cat also provides S•O•SSM Fluid Analysis. This routine checkup for oil, coolant and fuel delivers valuable insights that can be used to prevent unexpected failures and unplanned downtime. Using proprietary processes, sophisticated chemistry and the latest technology to reveal excessive component wear, unusual particle content, contaminated fluids or other “unseen” issues, you receive reports you can easily understand and recommendations you can act on. “The analysis is very vital to our equipment because they can tell me that we’re starting to have a failure before it actually fails,” Chreene says. “There aren’t too many people that can do that. Caterpillar has always had one of the best oil analyses labs around—by far. So that carries a lot of weight too.”
As Chreene looks to the future—which involves building additional landfill cells on an adjacent 100-acre tract over the 60-year planned life of the facility—he’s glad to have reliable equipment backed by the support of Louisiana Cat.
“The thing about Caterpillar is, if you want to be productive in the construction world, you’d better go with them.”
