Waste To Energy

By canceling their trip to a Tennessee composting plant, Carroll's commissioners unwittingly may have done the county's Waste to Energy Committee a big favor.Staying home means that the commissioners won't be blatantly undercutting the efforts of this high-powered citizens' committee develop alternatives to dumping solid waste into landfills.But committee members shouldn't be surprised when commissioners Julia W. Gouge, Donald I. Dell and Elmer C. Lippy disregard their findings.In the past, the commissioners have had the decency to ignore the recommendations of these citizen committees after they completed their work.

Optimism might seem out of place after the Waterkeeper Alliance's bitter loss in a recent lawsuit to hold Perdue Farms and its grower Alan Hudson responsible for polluting waterways with poultry manure. But it's possible to at least be hopeful of solutions, perhaps within the current decade, to this widespread bay pollution. Reasons for hope were less likely when the lawsuit was filed three years ago. Witness a survey recently presented by University of Maryland ag scientist Kenneth Staver.

Members of Carroll's Citizen Waste to Energy Committee got a quick lesson in solid waste calculus on their recent trip to amunicipal waste-to-energy plant in Lancaster, Pa. They also discovered this particular solid waste disposal equation has a lot more variables than they originally thought.At first blush, turning garbage into energy sounds like a simple, or, as my calculus professor used to say, elegant solution for the ever-vexing problem of garbage disposal.For a county such as Carroll, which is running out of landfill space, the prospect of burning garbage and reducing it to one-tenth its original volume is inviting.

Two Harford County Council members are calling for a state investigator to examine circumstances surrounding the proposed transfer station in Joppa, including the county's move away from the waste to energy facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground. At Tuesday's Harford County Council meeting, Councilmen Dion Guthrie and Joe Woods defended their comments to The Aegis last week that Aberdeen Proving Ground garrison commander Col. Orlando Ortiz said it was the county that pulled out of a waste disposal agreement, not APG. Woods said he went into last week's meeting with Guthrie and Ortiz fully prepared to accuse the Army of not being a good neighbor, only to find out it was the county that was not a good neighbor.

Carroll County's waste-to-energy study committee learned yesterday how trash is converted to electricity, what the conversion facilities look like and what kind of air pollutants are associated with them.Committee member Richard J. Borkowicz, an environmental engineer who has helped design waste-to-energy plants, provided the committee with an overview of a waste-to-energy plant and its operations.Mr. Borkowicz said that in the most common waste-to-energy plant, garbage is dumped into a receiving pit and then moved into a burner.

The Carroll County commissioners received an official invitation yesterday from their Frederick County counterparts to consider participating in a regional waste-to-energy facility, a step forward in a long-term discussion in both counties on how to manage trash. With Carroll's commissioners in attendance at its meeting, the Frederick County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to call for "an expression of interest" from Carroll's board. The commissioners spent nearly two hours talking about the proposed plant, including environmental and financial concerns.

The County Commissioners say they are keeping an open mind about joining three other counties in building a waste-to-energy plant, and have not ruled out putting such a plant in Carroll."

Carroll commissioners appointed 23 people yesterday to a Waste-to-Energy Study Committee and told them to investigate whether the county should build an incinerator.Committee members include Sykesville Mayor Lloyd R. Helt Jr., Hampstead Town Manager and Manchester councilman John Riley, Lehigh Portland Cement Co. Plant Manager David H. Roush, Uniontown activist Rachelle Hurwitz and Union Bridge Mayor Perry L. Jones Jr.Environmentalists, trash haulers and financial advisers also are on the committee, which will report to the commissioners in 18 months, Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy said.

The air inside the Harford County Resource Recovery Facility in Joppa is filled with an ever-present stench of trash. "That's the smell of money," said Frank Henderson, Harford's deputy director of environmental affairs, as he took a deep breath at the plant that residents call simply "the waste-to-energy." Harford County, which has been turning trash into energy for 20 years, is considering replacing the 20-year-old plant with a multimillion-dollar upgrade that would be a viable source of power and revenue well into this century.

A waste-to-energy incinerator in Lancaster County, Pa., may hold the key to whether a similar facility will be built at Fort Meade.Col. Robert G. Morris III, garrison commander at Fort Meade, told the Greater Odenton Improvement Association Wednesday *T evening that the National Security Agency, one of Fort Meade's tenants, wants to locate a waste-to-energy incinerator at his installation.He said he will visit the Pennsylvania plant next week. "If I don't like what it looks like, that will end right there," he said.

Regarding your article about the proposed waste-to-energy plant in South Baltimore, I don't think it's a good idea to have another such plant in the area since there is already such a high concentration of pollution there ("Delay sought for trash-burning power plant in Fairfield," Jan. 9). If we are trying to reduce pollutants in the air, all a new plant would do is discourage recycling and make it even harder to build other "green" energy projects. That's a step backward, not forward.

Carroll should continue as partner with Frederick in waste-to-energy facility Carroll County is approaching decision time on whether it will remain a partner with Frederick County in building a waste-to-energy facility in Frederick County that would not only dispose of waste for both jurisdictions, but also generate electricity in the process. Years ago, the facility was recommended as a viable long-term solution to the county's waste disposal problem by the county's Department of Public Works, and was approved by the sitting commissioners.

In a move that increases Maryland's commitment to renewable energy, the state Board of Public Works approved a deal Wednesday under which a Virginia company will be given a 30-year lease on land at an Eastern Shore prison to build a plant that will generate electricity out of a mixture of crops and chicken manure. Under its agreement with ECOCORP Inc. of Arlington, Va., the state will provide a 4.2-acre site at the Eastern Correctional Institute near Princess Anne at an annual rent of $100 for the company to construct the so-called anaerobic digester.

Some companies with interests in Maryland have found a new way to show support for Gov. Martin O'Malley: They're contributing tens of thousands of dollars to the Democratic Governors Association. Last December, O'Malley took the helm of the DGA, where as chairman he is charged with raising large sums to elect Democratic governors nationwide. Under his leadership, the group raised a record $11 million during the first six months of this year — including donations from Exelon Corp.

There is some question about whether the electricity plant planned for a vacant, brown patch on Baltimore's waterfront would be truly "green" and "renewable. " The generator built by Energy Answers would burn waste otherwise destined for the dump. It would blow carbon dioxide and other unnatural stuff into the air. Its backers say it's cleaner than a coal-burning plant and will save many acres of landfill space. What's not debatable is that Central Maryland needs new generation plants.

Last week Gov. Martin O'Malley proved that you can support job creation while protecting our natural resources. By signing Senate Bill 690, which puts waste-to-energy on par with landfills, O'Malley proved he cares about jobs and the environment. Before legislation, both in and out-of-state landfills capturing methane qualified for Tier 1 credits, which created low paying jobs and environmental issues for the next generation. Senate Bill 690 simply expands Maryland's options for meeting its aggressive renewable energy standard and puts waste to energy on par with landfill gas, biomass and chicken waste in the state's renewable energy standard.

Mayor Helt to serve on waste panelSykesville Mayor Lloyd R. Helt Jr. will serve on the county Waste to Energy Study Committee.The Town Council approved the mayor's appointment to the 24-member panel at last week's council session."

Before commissioners Donald I. Dell and Elmer C. Lippy forg ahead in their efforts to create a waste-to-energy incinerator in Carroll County, they should wait until the county finishes updating its current solid-waste management plan. Without a longer-range plan that specifies the most cost-efficient and least environmentally harmful means of disposing of the county's burgeoning solid waste, there is no way to know if this plant is the best solution to the county's garbage problems.At present, the county's solid waste disposal plan consists of two landfills and a voluntary recycling program that began five months ago. By any measure, this program is inadequate.

I want to thank Gov. Martin O'Malley for making the right decision and signing legislation that will put waste-to-energy on par with landfill gas in Maryland's renewable portfolio standard. This critical measure finally ends a policy that pushes garbage to mega-landfills. This new policy will help Maryland increase renewable energy generation near the areas of demand, increase economic activity and create high paying jobs. During my 30-year career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I developed the conviction that this country needs to promote opportunities to recover clean energy from waste materials.

Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an unusually detailed and thoughtful statement to explain his decision yesterday to sign legislation that will make waste-to-energy incineration a Tier 1 renewable resource in Maryland, on par with wind and solar power. The bill had turned into a battle ground between the companies that build and operate incinerators and virtually all major environmental groups in the state, which opposed the bill. It is clear that the governor considered the issue carefully and went beyond the talking points on both sides.