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A.
Beneficial Use of Landfill #149 through Mining – Piggyback
Project
Fauquier County is required
to begin closing the old landfill (permit #149) as of this
summer. It was apparent after completion of the 2006 solid
waste planning effort that when the County proceeds in this
direction several steps would need to occur to acquire
additional landfill capacity by 2015 – (a) relocation of the
Corral Farm convenience center and scalehouse, (b)
abandonment of Bingham Road from the College Street
intersection, and (c) improve screening between the landfill
and surrounding properties.
Also as part of the 2006 plan
conclusions, the County decided to continue receiving
construction – demolition (C&D) waste streams and construct
a C&D recycling facility to maximize material recovery.
Though C&D deliveries are presently well below system
capacity, the C&D sorting system still generates significant
net income from tipping fees and recyclable material sales.
The County’s new C&D
recycling system offers the opportunity to recover through
mining (excavation) a significant portion of the landfilled
C&D materials (soil, metal concrete, plastics, wood) placed
between 2001 – 2007, enhance landfill environmental
protection systems, defer closure, and reuse an existing
site to add 10-20 years of disposal capacity at the current
Corral Farm location.
Mining projects in the solid
waste industry are infrequent and require special
circumstances to become viable. However, with the extreme
difficulty of siting new solid waste facilities,
dramatically increasing fuel and construction costs, and
increasing value of recyclable materials, circumstances
today are more favorable for additional projects. In
addition to the City of Bristol’s current part-time MSW
mining project, many others have already occurred in the
United States –
▪ Atlantic County Utilities
Landfill, Atlantic City New Jersey in 2004 – 2005 (C&D)
▪ Martone Landfill, Barre
Massachusetts in 1992 (MSW, C&D)
▪ Bethlehem Landfill,
Bethlehem, New Hampshire in 1991 -1992 (MSW)
▪ Edinburg Landfill,
Edinburg, New York in 1990 (MSW)
▪ Frey Farm Landfill,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1991-1993 (MSW, C&D)
The Fauquier County project
is most similar in size to the Lancaster project at the Frey
Farm Landfill where 900,000 tons of MSW and C&D materials
were recovered in 3 years. The significant difference is
that the Fauquier project makes better economic sense to
recover materials a few months annually over 15 years as
part of a recycling program rather than supplying waste to
an incinerator as in Lancaster County.
Numerous discussions of the
County project have been undertaken with staff from the
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), County
engineers, landfill contractor, equipment vendors, and Pepco
(gas-to-electricity) representatives. In addition,
discussions are underway for a grant with Virginia Tech to
be able to quantify the recycled material that is
recovered. Through all discussions to date, the
mining-piggyback project appears feasible. Lynn Klappich
from Draper Aden & Associates will attend the work session
to summarize and answer questions concerning the operations,
engineering, regulatory and financial aspects of this
project as well as review the mining/piggybacking decision
in comparison to closure/post-closure. Ms. Klappich will
also review the FY 2009 engineering work program to include
–
▪ engineering for Cell 1
▪ screening, leachate and
stormwater improvements
▪ permitting for mining and
future landfill capacity
Since screening has become a
necessity to minimize the view of the operation and
recovered materials from the C&D recycling facility, Ms.
Klappich will present the process to allow the development
of long-term screening from both US 29 and the entrance road
into Lord Fairfax Community College. The need for screening
will continue to grow more critical as the landfill develops
new cells and fills at higher levels.
B. Suggested Collection
System Service Reductions
At the last work session on
solid waste management, several possible reductions were
provided that would lessen operating expenses through the
present low tonnage period. The hand-out of these possible
reductions is attached.
At this time, its requested
that the Board consider closing all solid waste services on
holidays and the collection system for 2 days during the
week (Wednesday/Thursday). The Corral Farm convenience site
at the main landfill would remain open seven days a week
(except for holidays). The
attached chart illustrates
the recommended hours of operation under an optional 40-hour
and 28-hour operating week, and tonnage information for each
site.
In response to routinely slow
traffic flow and low tonnage, it is also recommended that
the recycling site at Remington reduce its current hours of
Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday (noon – 5 p.m.) and
Saturday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m.) to just being open 8-hours weekly
on Saturdays.
As shown on the attached
chart, these service reductions could reduce operating
expenses of the Landfill Enterprise Fund up to approximately
$150,000 annually with minimal impact on revenue. However,
several impacts of a significant schedule may occur
including - complaints from those residents impacted by the
reduced hours, a possible increase in illegal dumping,
increased traffic congestion and container-hauling at the
Corral Farm site. Additional impacts would be somewhat
higher revenue and decreased hauling costs since some
residents would likely switch to private curbside service.
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