Trash study suggests incinerator, recycling

Commissioners hold off on making decisions on trash disposal plan

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Photos by Tom Fedor⁄The Gazette Heavy equipment operators spread a clay liner at the bottom of a new trash cell at the Frederick County landfill on Reichs Ford Road in Frederick. Crews were preparing the 12-acre Cell 3 this week to begin accepting trash. Click here to enlarge this photo The geosynthetic sandwiched liner from Cell 2 will be fused with the new liner to be placed in Cell 3.

By any account, Frederick County has a long-term plan to handle its trash. The question some officials have is if that plan represents a solution.

County officials figure they have a handle on trash until 2045 — a planned trash transfer station will haul trash out of the county, and remaining space at the landfill on Reichs Ford Road should take care of trash until then.

The problem with the plan, officials say, is that it relies heavily on other jurisdictions and its costs can vary widely because fluctuating gas prices lead to unstable transportation costs.

Frederick County hauls trash to counties in Virginia. What happens if those counties decide they no longer want to import trash, the officials ask.

In March, the Frederick Board of County Commissioners authorized the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority and its consultant, R.W. Beck, to study the county’s options.

A draft of the study was presented to commissioners Monday. It included a review of the recycling program, costs on disposing waste and ways the county could handle garbage on its own for the next 20 years.

‘‘Part of this is to get feedback from the board,” said Michael Marschner, director of the county’s division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management.

The report suggests the county build a trash incinerator, what many in the trash business call a ‘‘waste-to-energy” facility. The principle of a waste-to-energy option is to use garbage as fuel to generate electricity that could be sold to an electric utility, such as Allegheny Power. An incinerator results in a large reduction in the volume of trash and could generate revenue, the report states.

Commissioners were skeptical.

Commission President John ‘‘Lennie” Thompson Jr. (R) said he would want the incinerator, if built, located at the Reichs Ford Road landfill and a ban on importing trash.

Commissioner Jan H. Gardner (D) said she thinks an incinerator is the most ‘‘environmentally friendly” approach to handling trash.

The report also suggests a mandatory recycling program, but commissioners rejected that idea.

‘‘Some areas of the county would go with mandatory recycling, because they are used to it and have asked for it,” said Commissioner John R. Lovell Jr. (R). ‘‘But some are not ready for it.”

Gardner questioned how it could be enforced, and Thompson said homeowners typically balk at change and will reject the idea.

Roughly 46,000 households, or about half of the county’s 90,000 households, are served by the curbside program, according to the report. About 37 percent set out a bin of recycled material for pickup each week, and 11 percent have more than one bin.

It costs the county $1.3 million a year to run the recycling program, which not only includes curbside pickup, but also 12 drop-off locations for areas not served by curbside pickup.

The program has saved space at the landfill. During the last three years, it has saved about 52 days of landfill capacity, the report states.

The study does suggest that the county better educate residents and the public on the importance of recycling.

In the end, the board decided to delay making any decisions on the report since only three members — Thompson, Gardner and Lovell — attended the meeting. Commissioners Michael L. Cady (R) and Bruce L. Reeder (D) were absent.

‘‘This is a bold approach to take care of the infrastructure,” Lovell said. ‘‘We need to have all five voices because it’s a major policy step. ... There are a lot of different options and big opportunities to deal with solid waste in the county.”

The board will go over the options again when all five are present. ‘‘It’s a complex problem,” Gardner said. ‘‘Human beings have been creating garbage for a long time.”