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The county Planning Board deferred issuing advice on two proposed gas-to-energy facilities on former landfill sites in Derwood and Laytonsville, saying more information is needed after residents posed several questions at a Thursday hearing.

The county Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Solid Waste Services, working with state agencies and an engineering firm, plans to build and run facilities at the former Gude and Oaks landfills that would convert landfill gas being generated by decomposing waste into electricity.

The Gude Landfill, which had a facility that served the same purpose until 2006, was built in 1965 and served as a trash dump until 1982, according to a planning staff report.

The Oaks Landfill was used for waste disposal from 1982 to 1995 and then for ash residue and rubble disposal from 1995 to 1997.

Both sites still produce gas, which is collected in specially drilled wells and burned. The gas-to-energy facilities would take the gas being combusted and use the methane in the gas to run a generator, which would produce electricity.

They would be designed, built and run by SCS Engineers, a national firm, under a lease with the solid waste division, which is also working with the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority.

Nearby resident Julia Tillery, a member of the Gude Landfill Concerned Citizens, said her group is concerned about gases produced at the site. The group is already at odds with the county over its proposal to relocate a county school system bus depot from Crabbs Branch Way to the Gude Landfill.

"In broad strokes, the program sounds like a pure win-win situation; you burn up all these emissions and turn it into electricity," she told the Planning Board. "But the more our community studies operations at the Gude Landfill, the more questions we have about this proposal."

The group is concerned about emissions already produced at the site and has learned the engine will produce its own emissions, she said.

Tillery, who is also a member of the Derwood Station South Homeowners Association board of directors, also asked why the county's proposal lacks carbon filters and a scrubber for the engine. The county should consider micro-turbines, which are used in at least two dozen landfills across the country, as well as other technologies, she said.

"Before the county cashes in on its work of cleaning up the air at Gude Landfill, shouldn't we know if the landfill is already threatening our health, and shouldn't we take another look at a plan that would add more pollution there?" Tillery said. "There are just too many unanswered questions for us."

Warren "Ed" Tydings, a Laytonsville resident, said he also does not think building a facility at the Oaks Landfill would provide any "gain" for his community.

"It's going to create more pollutants in the air," he said. "That's the bottom line."

Peter Karasik, a section chief for the Division of Solid Waste Services, said the engines selected are considered the "best available in the industry" by the Maryland Department of the Environment's Air and Radiation Management Administration.

Planning Board members asked several questions, such as what the county could do to capture higher levels of methane at the sites.

Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson said he thought it would be best if the county came back with written responses to the questions.

Frederick Vernon Boyd, a community planner for Park and Planning, said both projects are under mandatory referral review, which means the Planning Board cannot approve or reject them, only offer advice.

Karasik said he has visited similar gas-to-energy projects in operation in Prince George's County, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

"It's a proven technology and we're sure it's going to run well below its air emissions permit limits," he said Tuesday.

His group is also exploring how to "better capture fugitive emissions from the Gude Landfill."

The landfill projects are not major sources of emissions, Karasik said, and using electricity from the facility proposed for the Gude Landfill as opposed to producing the same amount of electricity from a coal-burning power plant would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4,557 tons.

"This is equivalent to planting 9,506 acres of trees or taking 6,671 passenger cars off the roads," he said. "Similarly, for the Oaks Landfill, the benefits are three times as much since three times as much electricity will be generated."

Karasik said he expects to be back before the Planning Board in a few weeks. The county plans to have the facilities, which will cost approximately $7 million in total, built within the next six months.