SWA Determines Alternative Suggestions Presented Were Impractical and More Expensive

The Solid Waste Authority (SWA) meeting on May 27^th, was held in the Circuit Courtroom before an angry and sometimes disruptive crowd of about 75 people who are opposed to the proposal of Jacob Meck to build a transfer station at the landfill. That proposal will cost the SWA about 4.1 million dollars spread out over 15 years.

David Sims, the SWA’s Attorney, said that while they were not prepared to make a final decision at this meeting, they have analyzed the costs of the proposals provided to them when they met with that public group in Green Bank. That was after the SWA had suspended action on the Meck proposal at their April 29^th meeting at which time Sims had announced that the transfer station project was being tabled and the SWA board was going to start over, and would be welcoming suggestions from the public. In response, the following suggestions were provided to them by the public. Sims addressed the costs and/or practicality of each of them.

• One option received was having the SWA or another hauling company truck the solid waste directly from the green boxes to another county’s landfill, which while claimed to be the cheapest (leasing a truck for $102,000 per year, or buying a garbage truck for $374,000.) Sims said the actual cost to lease a truck is $8,500 per month, and Landfill Manager Chris McComb said two trucks would be needed to do this every day, so the lease payment would be $17,000 per month (or $3,060,000 over 15 years,) fuel would be $38,000 per year (or $570,000 over 15 years,) oil changes $4,700 per year (or $70,500 over 15 years,) , tires would cost $12,000 per year (or $180,000 over 15 years,), and those vehicle costs ($3,880,500) don’t include inflation, truck repairs, drivers salaries, or tipping fee costs at the other landfills. The green boxes would also not be able to be emptied on their busiest days- weekends and holidays- because other landfills close very early on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays and holidays, and it is illegal to leave trash in a garbage truck overnight. However, McComb said the biggest problem is that this option would handle household garbage, but not Construction and Demolition waste, appliances (called white goods) or recyclables, which combined make up over 1/3 of all our solid waste by weight. This option therefore is actually more costly over a 15-year period than the Meck proposal, so it is cost prohibitive and would not solve the complete waste problems here.
• Two other options presented to them involved placing trash compactors like Highland County does. Here they would be placed at each of the green box sites. One of those options would have the SWA haul the compacted trash from the green boxes to another landfill, while another option would use a commercial hauling company for that. Those presenting these options claim that the compactors only cost $22,000 each plus about $10,000 to $20,000 to prepare the sites for the compactors. Sims pointed out that we would have to make expensive major changes at each Green Box site, such as adding 3-phase electric, reinforced concrete pads for the compactors, full-time attendants’ salaries to operate the much larger compactors needed here than the small ones Highland County uses at their roadside convenience centers, because we generate much more trash than Highland does. He said we would need boxes at each site to store the compacted trash after it was removed from the compactors and until it can be trucked away. He said these boxes each cost about $30,000. He said there are also likely freezing problems in the winter whereby compacted trash cannot be removed from the compactors until they unfreeze; the theft of copper wiring from the compactor motors are expensive to repair and make them inoperable until fixed, and the larger compactors we would need cost about $60,000 each, not $22,000.

We checked with Jerri Botkin, the Highland County Administrator and she said that actually their 4 roadside convenience centers have smaller3-foot compactors which cost $62,000 each and their largest is a 6-foot one at their old landfill that cost $115,000, but they did not experience the freezing problems in the one winter they have used them so far. They do not allow the public to operate them, and they did require expensive concrete pads and truck aprons to be installed at each site, and they do have those storage boxes at each site. She said that she did not believe that compactors, which work well for Highland County’s less than 2000 tons of trash a year, would be economical or practical for our 8,000 tons of trash per year, especially since our compactors would need to be a lot larger and more expensive than theirs.

Also, compacted trash weighs about the same as un-compacted trash, and trucks are limited in the weight they can carry.

• Another option presented to them was building a smaller transfer station under an open bid: Sims and McComb said that is not a smart idea because the large size is necessary for a 50-foot walking trailer to fit under cover in the building to be legal to store trash in it overnight, and a large floor area is needed to separate the appliances, construction and demolition waste and recyclables from the household trash, since it all goes to separate places. McComb mentioned the amount of demolition debris generated by the 1985 flood and said we have to be prepared for any similar catastrophe. It would also be almost as expensive.
• Another option was to build another landfill here at a claimed cost of 6 to 9 million dollars but it would last 65 years. The problem is there are no locations for a new landfill because they are not allowed on National Forest, State Park or on any limestone karst areas, which eliminates most of the county. Mr. Dilley spoke up and said they could use his land adjoining the present landfill, but Chris McComb said Dilley’s parcel does not have the proper drainage for a landfill, and installing pumps to drain it would be incredibly expensive. Also, the amount of time to obtain permits for, prepare, and build a new landfill could be years. And, each cell would only last about 5 years and cost about 5 million dollars each.

Also at the meeting, it was announced that the SWA was retaining a new engineering company to explore the possibility of extending the useful life of our landfill by months, and possibly up to a year by using other areas at the landfill that we were told in the past that we cannot use. This extra time might open up some other options.

Meck was asked to talk about his proposal, and a number of the members of the audience walked out, while some others tried to talk or shout over him. Two people had to be ejected from the meeting by the State Police.