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Update – Old Landfill Mining
& Expansion Project
Closure of the old landfill
#149 is required to begin no later than July 1, 2008.
Rather than close this facility in the next year, the
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has
indicated support for a landfill mining and piggyback
(expansion) project. At this time, DEQ has not yet
terminated the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that
governs the old landfill.
In order to proceed with
this project, the County needs to initiate the permitting
process through DEQ for (a) mining and (b) landfill
expansion. The first step in the permitting process is to
submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) for Mining which is
relatively straightforward. A tentative schedule is
presented below:
▪ Advertise a public
comment period and public meeting on June 18th & 25th
▪ Hold an onsite public
meeting on July 2nd
▪ Update the Board
concerning public comments on July 10th
▪ Request the Board pass a
resolution on August 14th
▪ Submit the NOI – Mining
to DEQ by August 28th
After DEQ approves the NOI
for Mining, a permit amendment concerning operations and
safety will be prepared and must be approved by DEQ before
mining can actually begin.
Along with preparing the
above mining permit application, engineering work will be
initiated for a Notice of Intent (NOI) to expand the
landfill. A separate public meeting, additional regulatory
requirements and separate Board action are necessary before
submitting the NOI-Landfill Expansion. Given the relatively
brief period available to permit and construct a future
facility, engineering work to prepare a complete permit
application needs to be ongoing during FY 2009 and FY 2010
until completed.
Update – Waste to Energy
Feasibility
To investigate the
feasibility of waste-to-energy (WTE) systems to manage the
local waste stream, in April and May, County staff:
▪ Attended a SWANA
presentation “Status of Waste-to-Energy & Conversion
Technologies”
presented by Frank
Bernheisel, GBB;
▪ Visited Frederick
County, Maryland to meet with their WTE consultant Jorgen
Haukohl and Bettina
Kamuk, RAMBOLL;
▪ Attended the North
American Waste to Energy Conference (NAWTEC) to hear updates
on St. Lucie, Florida’s planned plasma facility.
The SWANA presentation
discusses the different WTE technologies and the last two
pages summarize their various risk factors. It is very
clear that mass-burn incineration with energy recovery and
refuse-derived fuel are the only proven, low-risk
technologies in existence today as alternatives to recycling
and landfilling.
The meeting in Frederick
County, Maryland was useful indicating that Frederick County
is projecting expenditures in excess of $15 million in FY
2008 to long-haul their waste to a private landfill in
Virginia, and are pursuing the development of a mass-burn
WTE system to serve their needs and adjacent Carroll County
that is estimated to have a capital cost in excess of $300
million. In addition, Mr. Jorgen Haukohl, RAMBOLL and Ms.
Bettina Kamuk elaborated on their experience designing
mass-burn WTE facilities and their travels to Germany and
Japan to visit gasification facilities. Mr. Haukohl was
clear that the gasification facilities in these countries
have not operated as claimed and are not commercially
viable.
Meeting notes are provided
for the NAWTEC conference but in summary substantiate the
above paragraphs.
Conclusions
Two critical conclusions can
be reached from the waste-to-energy investigation of the
last two months:
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Mass-burn incineration
with energy recovery is a proven technology for MSW
waste streams to reduce landfill reliance, and there are
numerous large-scale facilities available nearby to
visit. However, it has a very high capital cost
($100-200+ million) and often generates strong negative
public reaction.
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Other technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, and
composting have been attempted for several decades but
are yet unproven and without representative facilities
to visit or acquire data. In St. Lucie County’s case,
estimated capital costs for their proposed plasma
facility are $450 million and determined to be
equivalent to a mass-burn WTE facility.
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