Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Enviro Solid Waste Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enviro Solid Waste Man. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2011

Westminster Common Council Members Frazier and Whitson weigh-in on incinerator and airport expansion

Westminster Common Council Members Frazier and Whitson weigh-in on incinerator and airport expansion

October 17, 2011

As a citizens of Westminster, we have wondered why some elected officials of Westminster haven’t publicly weighed in on issues that would have a large impact on Westminster.  Now that we are elected Councilmen. we would like to let our views be known on two issues that we believe will impact Westminster.  Here are our observations and concerns.

The first is the “waste to energy” incinerator that the county is currently thinking about building with Fredrick County. We are against it for several reasons:

The first of which is the cost to run it. There is a waste to energy incinerator in Montgomery County and every family in the county is charged a fee of several hundred dollars a year to keep it running. Do we need another fee in Carroll?

The incinerator also needs tremendous amounts of trash to keep it running, and needs the paper, cardboard and plastic that is and can be recycled to keep the operating temperatures high enough to run efficiently.  That means that the paper cardboard and plastic that is currently being recycled in Carroll will be burned and not reused.

This is a linear system and we live in nature, which is a cyclical system. A linear system takes, makes, and wastes. It takes things from the resource base and makes whatever we want to buy and creates wastes along the way. Ultimately what is made is also thrown away and in this case it will be burned. We should try to treat our resources like nature in a close looped system. We need to reuse the paper, cardboard, plastic and other “trash” instead of burning it. 

There are technologies in place that make this a more cost effective solution as well which have been recently shared with us at Council meetings. 

One final note that should put an exclamation point on our reasoning is that the incinerator in Harrisburg is the main reason for the city going bankrupt recently!!

The other issue that we are against that is also being looked at is the airport expansion. I have not seen, read or heard of any way that the airport expansion will benefit the people of Westminster or Carroll County.  If it will not somehow positively impact the welfare of the people than why spend the taxpayers money on it. 

The present airport is continuously operating at a loss  with no reason to think it will start to make a profit.  The present debt is 5 million dollars and counting!

The Federal government wants to invest 73 million in it and make it bigger, but after that we will be in charge of the upkeep, which will cost us more money as well.

Marada,  which was one of the main reasons for the expansion, is out of business!

Businesses are less likely to come to Maryland in general due to the heavy tax burden and our lower taxed neighbors.

If we accept Federal  money,  they will give us more mandates in what is required for the airport and have control, as opposed to local control, and we know how much money the Federal gov’t has right now.  – 14 trillion and counting.  Don’t think Carroll County is high on their priority list.

There are also environmental  concerns relating to fuel being dropped on local fields/noise/ as well as homes/land that people have lived on their whole lives that would have to be condemned and forced to move elsewhere in these difficult times.

There is no reason that a county government should be running an airport in the first place.  Governments are not good at being businesses and shouldn’t try to be businesses. 

4 of the 5 Commmisioners ran on a platform that they were opposed to the airport expansion and they should keep their word!

If a business were running an airport it would be more efficient.  In fact, we would be making money as a county if they turned a profit because the private company would be paying taxes.  Since the county runs the airport there is no tax revenue coming in from the airport! When the county loses money, due to the airport losing money, We the People of Carroll County lose!


*****

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Latest News from Waste Not! Carroll Update

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 

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

http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
Harrisburg Mayor Proposes Asset Sale, Possible Tax on Commuters
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

http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/

From Frederick News Post, July 22, 2011
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.  
Read More Here

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 society

By 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-Post
The 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

AROUND 200 people voiced their anger and opposition to the proposed "energy from waste" incinerator set for Devonport's North Yard.
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.

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 itOr 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, 2011
The Maryland State Highway Administration is donating scrap metal from signs to South Carroll High School so students can use them to build compost bins for cafeteria scraps.
The 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.
Originally the school had planned to use wood to build the bins, which will be 12-by-12-by-6-feet, but a consultant from the Department of Natural Resources pointed out that the wood will deteriorate and that metal would be better. Purchasing metal for the project could have been cost restrictive, so the DNR contacted the SHA to ask for donated scrap metal.
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 Russell
Boston Globe Staff / January 4, 2011
Attorney 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.




*****

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Tentacle: Marschner’s Reasons for Retiring

October 28, 2010

Marschner’s Reasons for Retiring
John W. Ashbury
Announcement was made yesterday that Michael Marschner, the Director of the Frederick County Division of Utilities & Solid Waste Management, is retiring from county employ.

TheTentacle.com has received communications from several sources regarding Mr. Marshner’s decision. Below is a letter from Mr. Marschner to County Commissioner Kai Hagen outlining some of the reasons for his decision to retire. We present it without further comment – because, as you will see, it needs no further comment. The letter was posted as an email at 3:18 P.M. yesterday...  http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4028


People Marschner mike, Enviro, Enviro Solid Waste Man, Enviro Solid Waste to Energy, Media The Tentacle, Frederick Co Issues,


For more information and background, read Joan Marie Aquilino:  http://www.thetentacle.com
/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2861 and here:http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2873. They were both very informative. 

And for more information: March 5, 2008 Making Trash Go Away – Part One and Two Kevin E. Dayhoff; 


here http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2433 and here http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2435 - - and then: 


April 16, 2008 How to Make Trash Go Away http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=2556 Kevin E. Dayhoff...

For a more information on solid waste management issues click here: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/search/label/Enviro%20Solid%20Waste%20Man
*****

Monday, October 11, 2010

Rescuing resources: WasteNot! Carroll pitches in By Lois Szymanski

Rescuing resources: WasteNot! Carroll pitches in By Lois Szymanski




Friday, October 8, 2010 By Lois Szymanski, For Neighborhoods

The grassroots organization Waste Not! Carroll has been working to keep recyclables out of the county’s trash since 2009. At last month’s Maryland Wine Festival at the Carroll County Farm Museum, nearly 70 volunteers promoted recycling and composting and helped the museum’s efforts. Together, they diverted more than nine tons of resources from the waste stream.

“That figure includes the efforts of vendors, attendees and the farm museum staff,” said Don West, cofounder of Waste Not! Carroll.

The museum staff concentrated on the wineries and was able to recycle 7.58 tons of recyclables.

Waste Not! Carroll was assigned food vendor areas and sent an additional 1.26 tons of recyclables to the county.

West said that, in addition, they removed what he estimated to be an additional ton of compost, aluminum and other recyclables…  http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/neighborhoods/article_1257668a-d24c-11df-be4e-001cc4c03286.html
  
20101008 Szymanski WasteNot! Carroll pitches in

*****

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Soundtrack Op-ed: “Waste Not! – Carroll” speaks out on MGA incinerator legislation



Soundtrack Op-ed: Don West, co-founder of “Waste Not! – Carroll” speaks out on Maryland General Assembly incinerator legislation

February 14, 2010
Editor,

On Saturday, February 13, 2010, the Carroll County Times Opinion Page gave Senate Bill 228 a “thumbs down”. The bill, sponsored by Senator Alex Mooney, R – District 3 (Frederick and Washington Counties), prohibits the Maryland Department of the Environment from issuing a permit for the construction of an incinerator unless certain conditions are met.

Included in those conditions are that the incinerator is located in an area zoned for heavy industrial activity and that the site is at least 3 miles from a church, school, park, hospital or residential dwelling.

The CC Times asserts that Mooney was disingenuous in offering the legislation. Yet, Senator Mooney states he has received thousands of e-mails from his constituents in opposition to the Waste to Energy (WTE) incinerator that is proposed in his district. Rather than disingenuous, I view his legislation as an example of a senator responding to the needs and desires of those he serves.

The same column accuses Mooney of political posturing in an election year. That charge is easy enough to refute – Senator Mooney introduced a similar bill in last year’s legislative session. Last year was not an election year for County Commissioners in either Frederick or Carroll Counties.

Speaking of politicizing the issue, our own Commissioner Michael Zimmer ventured to Annapolis to testify against the same bill last week. He said he wants to make sure that Carroll County has an opportunity to reap the same benefits of WTE incineration as Baltimore City and Montgomery and Harford County. After examining this issue in some detail, I’m wondering what benefits Commissioner Zimmer has in mind?

Perhaps it’s all the money to be spent? With current projected construction costs upwards of $600,000,000, plus the financing and the anticipated operating expenses for the life span of the incinerator, we are facing a total cost to taxpayers in Carroll and Frederick in excess of 2 billion dollars!

Given current budgetary problems, I don’t see how anyone would view an expenditure of this magnitude a ‘benefit’. If you are interested in how bad it can get, look to Harrisburg, PA, where the city is nearly bankrupt following a botched upgrade to their incinerator.

Another ‘benefit’ of WTE incineration that proponents like to cite is the electrical energy the facility will generate. What they don’t say is that the incinerator is in reality a poor source of power, generating only about 1/10 of the electricity of a typical electrical plant. Also, any power generated goes first to the operation of the facility. Then Frederick County, as majority partner, gets second priority for the power.

Finally, Carroll County can get what’s left, providing we pay for it. That’s right, we will pay for the electricity generated by burning the trash that we pay to have burned in the incinerator that we are paying for! At the Dickerson facility in Montgomery County, financial records show that money from the sale of electricity doesn’t even offset service on the bonds issued for the initial construction of that incinerator; operating costs are borne by the residents and taxpayers.

In fact, if you compare the energy saved by recycling or composting waste destined for the incinerator versus the energy provided from its combustion, incineration is an enormous Waste of Energy!

Proponents of the incinerator would like you to think that with an incinerator burning our trash, we will no longer need landfills. This is false. First of all, as much as 20 – 25% of our solid waste can’t be burned. Most yard waste and construction & demolition refuse are two examples - other disposal methods will need to be used.

Plus the residual ash from the incinerator will need to be dealt with. Some propose that using the ash as a daily cover at the landfill is appealing. Montgomery County, however, pays to haul its ash to Virginia, where it is handled as a hazardous waste, at an additional cost of several million dollars per year. I’m not seeing any great benefit there, either.

Finally, proponents like to say that emissions from the Waste to Energy incinerator will be closely monitored. Carroll and Frederick’s agreement allows for the monitoring of 12 regulated emissions. Unfortunately, a recent report from the MDE for the Harford County incinerator identified nearly 200 toxins released! If that’s the level of monitoring we can expect at our proposed incinerator, I don’t think I would want my family to live 30 miles from such a facility.

An editorial in the CCT’s the following day accuses Senator Mooney of a “Not In My Backyard” motivation for proposing his legislation. Superficially, I can see where that could be argued, except that the adoption of his bill would mean that nobody in Maryland would have an incinerator within 3 miles of their home, school or church.

Perhaps it’s more accurately portrayed as NIABY, “ Not In Anybody’s Backyard”. For that, Mooney’s attempt at regulating future incinerator locations should be applauded, not ridiculed.

Some may view Senator Mooney’s legislation as an intrusion of state government into a local issue. However, when our local elected officials ignore the views of their constituents, and more importantly, the facts and ramifications of their decisions, seeking the assistance of another level of our government is our right and obligation.

Don H. West
Westminster

The writer is a co-founder of Waste Not! - Carroll
*****
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Carroll commissioners approve pact to join Frederick in $500M incinerator project


Carroll commissioners approve pact to join Frederick in $500M incinerator project
UPDATE: For more on Waste-to-Energy: http://tinyurl.com/nwcuwd

By Charles Schelle cschelle@patuxent.com

Carroll’s Board of County Commissioners will move forward with plans to join Frederick County in building the first waste-to-energy trash incinerator in the United States in more than 13 years.

Commissioners Dean Minnich and Michael Zimmer voted on Thursday to approve a resolution that accepts Frederick County’s invitation to build a joint, 1,500-ton-per-day capacity waste-to-energy trash incinerator at the Ballenger Creek/McKinney Industrial Center, which is located beside the Monocacy River and Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick.

Commission President Julia Gouge, who in the past had talked favorably about composting as an alternative to an incinerator, was absent for the vote.

Carroll County would pay 40 percent of the cost of the estimated $501 million incinerator — or about $200 million — while Frederick County would pay 60 percent.


See more of this story at ... http://www.explorecarroll.com/news/3086/ceincineratorresolution0702/

20090702 sdosm Carroll Commissioners approve WTE pact with Frederick