But those in the know would see something else - cutting-edge action to reduce global warming.

The landfill's operator, Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District, is the first Utah member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, a kind of stock market for the pollution blamed for global warming.

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, they trade commodities like platinum and Japanese yen. But on the climate exchange, they trade pollution avoidance. In effect, the commodity Wasatch Integrated has to offer for sale is methane gas siphoned from the rotting garbage.

And some business out there is willing to pay about $3.50 for every ton of greenhouse gas pollution the special-service district keeps out of the air. That purchase also allows the buyer to say it's helped solve the worldwide problem of climate change.

Paying to avoid pollution may sound goofy, but many agree it's the wave of the future.

"We've always been environmentally progressive in how we've handled our waste in the district," said Executive Director Nathan Rich.

Pipes drilled into the landfill suck methane from the garbage and send it to a compressor. The gas is then piped to Hill Air Force Base, where generators transform it into megawatts of electricity.

Methane is an especially potent greenhouse gas, part of the chemical stew of car exhaust, coal-plant emissions and other human-made pollution that, combined with natural factors, is blamed for disrupting the Earth's climate.

The district used to burn off the stinky methane. But, through the climate exchange, the district can turn that avoided pollution into cash.

District officials signed an agreement in December that requires a 6 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2010 and allows the sale of additional pollution reductions on the Chicago Climate Exchange trading floor. Rich said climate-exchange deals could yield up to $120,000 a year, and the gas will be collected for decades.

"It's basically a cap-and-trade program," Rich added. "It's not mandatory yet, but I think a lot of people see that coming."

Wasatch Integrated is one of the new members flocking to the exchange. In 2005, about 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents were traded. In 2006, that jumped to 10.3 million tons. And, in the first two months of 2007, industry, government and academia used the exchange to trade about 6 million tons, the exchange reports.

Meanwhile, the value of that avoided pollution also has boomed. In the summer of 2005, a ton of carbon dioxide pollution fetched about $2 on the floor. The going price these days is $3.60 per ton.

The Chicago Climate Exchange has high hopes for future Utah members, according to Richard Sandor, chairman and CEO.

"We expect to continue to broaden membership from both a sector as well as from a geographic point of view," he said.

Salt Lake City has been in talks with the exchange for nearly two years but has opted so far against joining.

Although it has a worldwide reputation for aggressive programs to address climate change, Utah's capital city would have to pay a premium to take part, about $10,000 a year, said Jordan Gates, environmental adviser to Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. City government already has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent, or 36,000 tons annually, compared with 2001 emissions, by deploying methane capture, changing to low-energy lighting and a variety of other energy-saving actions. But the climate exchange's regulations would not allow credit for improvements already made.

"It puts us in a position where it's really not cost-effective," he said.

The city continues to do whatever it can to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And, Gates added, "We haven't given up completely."

fahys@sltrib.com

Pollution exchange info

The Chicago Climate Exchange has about 270 members. Big corporations, including Ford Motor Corp., have joined. So have states (such as New Mexico), cities, including Portland, Ore., and other government agencies. The Iowa Farm Bureau, the University of Minnesota and the World Resources Institute are also members.

As more people become convinced that climate change is a problem, more see climate exchanges as a way to get a jump on an inevitable government-mandated cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gasses.

To learn more about the Chicago Climate Exchange, see its web site: www.chicagoclimateexchange.com.

More on the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District can be found at: www.wasatchintegrated.org.