More News

Carroll County commissioners are slated Thursday to discuss the proposal to build a joint trash incinerator with Frederick County.

The discussion is scheduled to come after Tuesday's vote by the Frederick Board of County Commissioners in favor of the project.

"I consider it a positive decision from my perspective," Carroll Commissioner Michael D. Zimmer (R) said just hours after Frederick County's decision.

But Zimmer is concerned about comments made Tuesday by Frederick Commissioner Kai J. Hagen (D).

Hagen, the lone Frederick commissioner against incineration in any form, said he expects the project to be a major issue in the 2010 election. He even went so far as to predict that the next board could overturn this board's decision.

Hagen has said he plans to run for re-election in 2010.

"No matter how this proceeds, the next board will have an opportunity to reverse this board's decision," Hagen told his colleagues during their discussion of the proposal.

Hagen even said he believes the incinerator will never be built, and predicted that someone would file a lawsuit, though he would not say who.

Those possibilities worried Zimmer.

"I'm anxious about this," he said. "We really need to think this through. It's something to take into account. What will happen to Carroll County if Frederick County backs out? We need to talk about this. I think we need to have a plan."

Part of that plan could involve a new landfill. Carroll commissioners last month started looking for land to buy so they could build a new landfill if the incinerator falls through.

Meanwhile, Frederick County officials are preparing a written agreement, or "memorandum of understanding," to present to Carroll commissioners to build and operate the incinerator.

Since the original proposal specified that a joint incinerator would be built, the final decision rests in the hands of Carroll commissioners.

If they decide not to sign the agreement, Frederick County cannot move forward with building the incinerator as proposed, said Michael G. Marschner, director of the county's division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management.

They would have to start the process over with a new request for proposals, a process that would set the project back months.

Tuesday's 3-2 vote by Frederick commissioners comes after years of study, discussion and debate over whether an incinerator, or what some people call a "waste-to-energy facility" because it burns trash to generate electricity, is the best choice to handle the county's growing mounds of trash.

Commissioners President Jan H. Gardner (D) and Hagen opposed the proposal.

Gardner said she supports incineration in general, but not building at the proposed McKinney Industrial Center because of its proximity to the Monocacy National Battlefield. Hagen is against incineration anywhere.

The proposal passed, however, with favorable votes from Commissioners David P. Gray (R), Charles A. Jenkins (R) and John "Lennie" Thompson Jr. (R).

"It's not a choice of spending nothing, and the non-recyclable trash is going to disappear," Thompson said. "It appears that waste-to-energy at this particular time appears to me to be the least desirable of the undesirable solutions. This is the best of several alternatives that are not particularly desirable."

Jenkins led Tuesday with several motions to move the project forward.

Commissioners agreed to build the incinerator at the McKinney Industrial Center, off Md. Route 85 south of the City of Frederick, near the county's jail and wastewater treatment plant.

The incinerator will burn 1,500 tons of trash per day from Frederick and Carroll counties. The cost for Frederick County to build the plant is between $300 million to $320 million, officials said Tuesday.

Carroll County will pick up the remaining costs. The total price tag for the incinerator is close to $600 million.

The board will also require Wheelabrator, the company that would build the incinerator, to formulate a plan to remove recyclable material before and after incineration.

The board also wants to see if Essroc Concrete Plant, located at the McKinney Industrial Center, will remove its unused smokestack.

The choice of the McKinney site for the incinerator has been controversial because of its proximity to battlefield. There are concerns that the incinerator's smokestack will be seen from the battlefield.

Jenkins hopes that Essroc officials will tear down its smokestack to help alleviate some concerns.

Commissioners suspended talks of the incinerator on April 30, and asked staff to look at conventional and advanced disposal methods, such as microbes to eat trash and expansion of the Reich's Ford Road landfill, as alternatives to building an incinerator.

Staff was expected to provide that information to the board in roughly four months.

Jenkins pushed for the delay to allow him time to meet with officials in York, Pa., or Baltimore City to see if they would be open to accepting Frederick's trash for disposal in their incinerators.

But officials from both jurisdictions told Jenkins that they cannot take Frederick County's trash, so he asked that discussion be moved up and the suspension be lifted.

E-mail Sherry Greenfield at sgreenfield@gazette.net.