http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
Carroll County Times Calls For Board To Honor Promise on WTE
In a recent editorial, the Carroll County Times called on the County's Board of Commissioners to make a decision on whether or not to remain in a partnership with Frederick County to build a trash burning plant. The decision should be a straightforward one - besides the serious environmental risks that the plant poses as well as the inconceivable price tag that it comes with, several of the commissioners campaigned against the plant when they were running for office. It's time that they make true on their promise!Read the editorial here.
Maryland Set to Become America's Smoldering Trash Can
http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
A recently released report details how the incinerator industry is pushing to make Maryland the East Coast's premiere destination for...other people's garbage! That should do wonders for our state's reputation. Read more here
Three Letters in the Paper That Are Worth Reading
http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
Three recent letters in the Carroll County Times that are worth a read. To see them, click...
Here
And Here
And Here
Three recent letters in the Carroll County Times that are worth a read. To see them, click...
Here
And Here
And Here
More evidence that incinerators produce harmful nanoparticles
Like Carroll and Frederick Counties, citizens in the city of Vancouver, BC are also fighting plans to build a waste incinerator. As this recent article mentions, in addition to putting local governments into debt, degrading the surrounding environment, the smoke that incinerators release as they burn garbage poses a serious hazard to human health.Click here to read more.Bankrupted Harrisburg, PA trying to sell Incinerator to Get Out Of Debt
By Romy Varghese - Aug 3, 2011 12:01 AM ET
From Bloomberg.com
Pennsylvania’s capital city must sell a debt-laden trash incinerator, lease its parking system and consider a tax on commuters if those measures aren’t enough to restore fiscal stability, Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson said.
The city, which has a $5 million budget deficit, stands to lose $3 million in state aid -- jeopardizing its ability to pay bondholders and employees -- if the City Council votes down the blueprint announced yesterday by Thompson.
“The plan will accomplish the core objectives and return the city of Harrisburg to solvency,” Thompson told reporters. “And it will do so with shared responsibility and shared burden, with a minimal impact to the citizens.”
The council must vote to approve the plan by Sept. 6 or risk the loss of state aid, said C. Alan Walker, head of the state’s Community and Economic Development Department, which runs a distressed-cities program that Harrisburg entered in December. Click here to read more.
Carroll County Landfill Now Offers Styrofoam Recycling
Check out this great little video, featuring Waste Not!'s own Don West!
Public decries waste-to-energy project
By Patti S. Borda
Potential pollution, traffic and expense associated with a waste-to-energy incinerator drew a group of residents to a meeting Thursday with Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Members of the public who attended the meeting were not convinced that the county plant will receive enough trash to make it profitable, and if it does they said too much material that could be recycled will be incinerated instead.
Michael Marschner, Frederick County special projects manager, said the county's household recycling program has been designed to divert recyclable material from the waste stream at the landfill and will do the same once the incinerator is operating. He and Wheelabrator representatives said the only recyclable material that will end up in the incinerator is material that comes from households that do not separate their waste.
Click here to keep reading.Lehigh To Start Burning Trash!
Lehigh Cement in Union Bridge has announced that they will start burning garbage in order to fuel their plant. They are doing their best to make sure that the processes that they will be using is as innocuous sounding as possible, calling the garbage "engineered fuel" and claiming that it is "cleaner, greener, and renewable" when compared to the coal that they currently burn to fuel the plant. Let's be clear about a few things, though: First, there is nothing clean, green, or renewable about burning garbage. The plastics and rubbers that they will likely be burning are only as renewable as the petroleum from which these products were derived. Second, this is a new process - Lehigh has no idea what kind of health effects this could have. Any claims otherwise are baseless.Third, Lehigh is not doing this because it cares about the environment, it's doing this because it wants to increase its profits. This particular plant has repeatedly gotten in trouble with state and federal regulators because of its staggeringly high levels of mercury emissions, (it is the second largest source of mercury emissions in the state of Maryland). A switch away from mercury heavy coal and towards this untested fuel is nothing more than a (literal) smoke screen to temporarily keep regulators off their backs. And finally, as Carroll County seems to poised to pull out of the disastrous Frederick incinerator partnership, it seems only too perfect that Lehigh, (whose past plant manager is now a county commissioner), would be starting to retrofit their plant to burn garbage. Wheelabrator admits to dumping untreated wastewater, ash into wetlands
Wheelabrator, the garbage burning company that has apparently been buying its way through county and state governments, recently admitted to releasing contaminated water and ash sludge into waterways and wetlands around it's Saugus, Massachusetts waste incineration plant. This is the same Wheelabrator that would like to build one its trash incinerating plants in Frederick, claiming that the technology that they use is environmentally friendly. Read more here.Industry encroaches on Maryland's Civil War battlefields
Sites at Monocacy, South Mountain highlight conflict with modern societyBy Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, April 25, 2011
FREDERICK -
Standing behind the old brick Worthington House, visitors can look down the gently sloping hillside and picture the Civil War battle that likely saved the nation's capital from capture.
Much of the farmland where Union soldiers fought that hot summer day in 1864 to delay a Confederate attack on Washington has been preserved as Monocacy National Battlefield. But the view from the Worthington farm, where the fighting began, appears fated to become less historic.
A huge waste-to-energy plant is planned just across the Monocacy River from the 1,650-acre park - a project that has sparked criticism as the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. One hundred fifty feet tall, with a 270-foot smokestack, the facility will loom over the trees that hide areas where Confederate cavalry forded the river to assault Union infantry.
"This will be visible from the visitors center and other key parts of the battlefield," said Susan W. Trail, superintendent of the historic park on the southern outskirts of Frederick. "It will, in my view, overwhelm part of our landscape." Click Here to Keep Reading.
Frederick County's future dimming
Originally published April 23, 2011 in the Fredrick News-PostThe long debate in Frederick County over the proposed incinerator/"waste-to-energy" facility for burning waste has left this citizen unconvinced of its merits. Instead of a public process where citizen concerns were addressed adequately and the inevitable benefits of the system portrayed conclusively, we have a series of decisions that leave disappointment and powerlessness in their wake.
The extreme costs locked into the system will inevitably hurt citizens inFrederick County; we'll watch our waste bills increase over time while others profit running our systems. This inflexible, no-turning-back technology will condemn us to a solution not used in decades and which is rapidly becoming totally obsolete. The debt service on the bonds, and, make no mistake about it despite the claims of Blaine Young, all the costs of these operations and management that we'll contractually pay are a burden and long legacy for citizens. Click Here To Keep Reading.
Lots of News and Updates
There are as many new developments this week as there are toxins emitted by a waste incinerator's smoke stack.* Paid lobbyists, industry representatives, and misguided county employees have once again been making the rounds trying to drum up support for a trash burning plant. This handy guide helps separate fact from fiction in the waste incineration debate. Click here to view/download.
* Robin Davidov, head of the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, spoke to Waste Not! Carroll last month. Here is video of her presentation and the lively Q & A that followed. Click here to see the video.
* The folks from the Environmental Integrity Project spoke at Waste Not! Carroll's March meeting. They are involved in helping to ensure that existing and proposed incinerators meet current and future air quality standards. Despite what the pro-incinerator lobby claims, trash burning plants produce a lot of pollution and very little electricity. In fact when you compare an incinerator to a coal power plant - as the Environmental Integrity Project has done - you begin to see just how bad for the environment trash burning plants really are. (Thanks to Robbie Orvis from the Environmental Integrity Project for researching and compiling the data). Click here to see this shocking comparison.
* Composting is an important part of any reasonable approach to waste management. This community in PA is showing just how easy curbside compost pick-up is to implement in a small sized municipality. Click Here to Read More.
* One of Frederick County's Commissioners is trying to bully Carroll County into making a decision about whether or not they still want to help build a trash burning plant. Click here to get the full story.
SHOCKER: Industry Lobbyist Tries to Mislead Public
Richard Haddad, former president of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and now paid lobbyist, has weighed in (again) in favor of the proposed trash burning plant in a letter to the Carroll County Times. Mr. Haddad's letter is so riddled with factual inaccuracies that it can hardly be taken seriously, and yet in an era where lobbyists such as Haddad are granted unparalleled access to government, it is imperative that his attempts at misleading the public be rebutted. Our readers are encouraged to have a look at his letter and send their response to the Times. Click here to read his letter.Tempe Startup Turns Garbage into Compost
GARIN GROFF, East Valley Tribune
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — It's said that one person's trash is another's treasure, but for a Tempe startup called EcoScraps, that trash is its very business model.
The fledgling business is based on the grocery industry's massive piles of fruits and vegetables that go bad before they can be sold and until now have been hauled to a landfill.EcoScraps has inked deals with grocers and wholesalers to haul it away and use it as a key ingredient in organic compost and potting soil that it sells at independent nurseries. The company plans to add 88 Bashas' stores and is looking for others in addition to its existing wholesaler supply, said Brandon Sargent, EcoScrap's co-founder and vice president. It hasn't been too difficult to get grocers to sign on, Sargent said, because trash companies charge stores by the weight of what's hauled away. Click Here To Keep Reading.
Hundreds stage noisy protest outside public consultation over incinerator
To the sound of a loud salsa-style drumbeat, they hoisted colourful banners and placards bearing anti-incinerator slogans outside the city's Guildhall where MVV Umwelt's final public consultation exhibition was held on Saturday.
The demonstration then took to the streets of the city centre, first to the sundial and onto New George Street, along Old Town Street, and then back down Royal Parade and then back to the Guildhall.
To rousing cheers speakers highlighted the myriad of concerns residents and others had raised since the various bids to build incinerators in the region were put in last year. Click Here To Keep Reading.
AROUND 200 people voiced their anger and opposition to the proposed "energy from waste" incinerator set for Devonport's North Yard.The demonstration then took to the streets of the city centre, first to the sundial and onto New George Street, along Old Town Street, and then back down Royal Parade and then back to the Guildhall.
To rousing cheers speakers highlighted the myriad of concerns residents and others had raised since the various bids to build incinerators in the region were put in last year. Click Here To Keep Reading.
If You Can't Convince Them...Then Confuse Them
Thanks to the efforts of this organization and others like it, the truth about the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority's trash burning plant has become clear: it is an unfathomably expensive pollution spewing waste of precious taxpayer dollars! And with the cat now out of the bag, the future of the proposed plant isn't looking so bright; Carroll County is on the verge of pulling out of the deal, Frederick County is deeply divided on whether they even want to host the toxic ash spewing budget busting monstrosity, and a competing waste management company is proposing a mega-facility in Baltimore that would render the proposed NMWDA plant obsolete. So, having failed to convince pretty much anyone about the merits of the proposed plant, NMWDA has resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book: If you can't convince them, confuse them. NMWDA sent current minion (and former Frederick County Public Works Director) MikeMarschner to Washington County to tell them why he wasn't trying to sell them an incinerator. Wait...what? Read more about The Facility Formerly Knows As An Incinerator in this write up from the Herald-Mail. Click Here.Interview with Waste Not!'s Don West
As both the cost and the environmental impact of incineration has become more apparent, you would be hard pressed to find anybody these days who actually thinks that burning trash is a good idea. So what should we do with our trash? For a better understanding of what is at play in the debate over how to handle this county's solid waste (and an excellent summation of the facts in this debate), have a peak at this interview with Don West on Sykesville Online - click here to see it. Or Here.
...Oh, and what's the deal with camel? You'll just have to read the interview to find out!
South Carroll Student Starts Composting Project
Posted:Saturday, January 22, 2011The project was the idea of 17-year-old Emily Peterson, a senior at the school, who has been working since the beginning of the school year to start a compost program there.
SHA will be donating 58 large aluminum panels for the project, and the students will begin building the bins in February.
The school will use the compost from cafeteria waste for general landscaping, planting American chestnut trees and other environmentally-friendly projects around the campus.
AG investigating waste incinerator - Employees tell of pollution releases
By Jenna RussellBoston Globe Staff / January 4, 2011Attorney General Martha Coakley is investigating Wheelabrator Saugus, the waste incinerator responsible for burning trash from 15 North Shore cities and towns, for alleged environmental violations including the discharge of hazardous chemicals into the air and water, according to several people who said they were interviewed by state officials.
The state investigation was spurred by two employees of the plant who filed a civil lawsuit against Wheelabrator Saugus Inc. and its parent company, Texas-based Waste Management Inc., more than a year ago in Essex Superior Court. The suit, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe, alleges that operators of the Saugus incinerator have knowingly violated environmental laws for years, endangered public health, and defrauded the communities that paid to send their garbage there for proper handling.
The employees filed suit under the Massachusetts False Claims Act, the law that protects whistle-blowers who report their employers for committing fraud against the government. In accordance with the law, it was filed on behalf of the 15 North Shore towns and cities that contract with Wheelabrator and was sealed by the court to keep it from public view while the state conducted its investigation.
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