Tensions erupted and a Dakota County Board committee meeting came to an abrupt end Tuesday amid discussion of a private company's proposal to expand a Rosemount landfill.

Commissioner Paul Krause, who said he didn't appreciate the way representatives of landfill owner SKB Environmental had treated county staff, cut off discussion of the proposal. "We're done," Krause said, his voice rising. "We're done."

The commissioners heard comments from county employees and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on the plan to expand the landfill along Hwy. 55 before Krause, who serves as chairman of the Physical Development Committee, asked representatives from SKB to make a brief statement.

He warned them, saying "You don't want me to go off on you," before confronting them about how they'd treated the staff.

When the SKB representatives suggested that he had been misinformed, Krause called for the end of the discussion, saying, "I'm not going to have you in here telling me that my staff is lying to me."

Representatives of SKB Environmental, who stormed out of the room, declined to comment. Reached by phone later Tuesday afternoon, SKB vice president John Domke said, "We have no comment at this time."

The county commissioners will consider the landfill expansion issue again at a May 19 meeting.

Michelle Beeman, the county's environment and natural resources director, said discussion with SKB grew heated in recent weeks as staff members developed a recommendation for the county board.

That recommendation calls for approval of the vertical expansion plans and an approval of the horizontal expansion, as long as wetland reconstruction is completed within 6 1/2 years.