More News

I am writing in response to May 14 article titled "Commissioner hopes trash disposal plan decided by end of year."

The best argument against Commissioner David Gray's support for the proposed incinerator in Frederick is his own argument — stated clearly when he was running for office in 2006.

Commissioner Gray asked me to stand in for him at an environmental candidates' forum at Thorpewood in 2006. I read these words he wrote for me to say, and the packed house at Thorpewood offered up the biggest applause of the evening after I was done:

"I do not support waste incineration. It sounds simple and easy. It almost makes us think that we can just go on forever throwing and burning. It however is fraught with significant pollution problems — both in the air and in the disposal of ash. Traffic to and from the incinerator adds to pollution and waste. The economics of such an operation are at best high risk and at worst we may end up begging other counties for their trash to achieve ‘economies of scale.' This would create more pass-through traffic problems on our roads — and by the way, who would want to live next to it?"

The only thing that has changed since 2006 regarding the incinerator proposal is the quoted construction price, which has tripled from $200 million to now nearly $600 million. Otherwise, candidate Gray's words from 2006 remain true today.

Please return to your original platform, Commissioner Gray. We don't need the mess of an incinerator plaguing the next board or the next several generations to come.

We need to view our "trash crisis" as a resource opportunity, to loosely quote Eric Lombardi, and proceed the way many other communities have already done. We can solve our problem through reduction, reuse, comprehensive recycling (including construction and demolition debris), large-scale composting, etc.

There will still be some material left to landfill, but that is true with incineration, as well. Incineration converts material (including valuable resources) to ash and emissions, and it costs a fortune.

These are the principle reasons why it remains a non-recommended technology in Frederick's own Solid Waste Management Plan.

Sally Sorbello, Frederick