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Carroll commissioners tour waste-to-energy plant in Pa.
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James Klecko, right, general manager of a refuse power plant in Lancaster County, Pa., explains the process of burning garbage to produce electricity to, from left, David Humbert, Commissioner Dean Minnich’s assistant; Frank Schaeffer, Carroll’s deputy public works director; Amanda Miller, Commissioner Michael Zimmer’s assistant; and Budget Director Ted Zaleski on Monday.
Carroll County commissioners said during a tour Monday that they were impressed with a Lancaster County, Pa., plant that burns refuse to produce electricity but remained undecided about whether to construct one of their own.
“I haven’t been convinced yet,” said Commissioner Julia Gouge, who added that she would like to explore co-composting, in which sewage sludge and trash are reused as a soil additive.
“I still have questions about whether we could produce enough electricity and whether we could get recycling rates up,” she said.
Commissioners, county staff and Environmental Advisory Council members donned hard hats and orange vests to tour the plant, which was built by Covanta Energy, one of three companies that submitted bids last week for a possible Carroll plant.
Carroll trucks 90 percent of its garbage to Virginia. But with rising gas prices and New York City willing to pay more than Carroll to truck its trash to Virginia, that arrangement appears doomed.
Ensuring that pollution levels are safe for the environment and residents’ health is the most important factor when weighing alternatives to the county’s quickly filling landfill, Commissioner Dean Minnich said.
James Warner, executive director of the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, told Carroll officials that his facility’s gas emissions were 90 percent lower than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits.
Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., which operates a Baltimore City plant, and Energy Answers, which built a plant in Massachusetts, also submitted cost estimates to the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, which organized Monday’s trip and last month’s tour of European plants that Public Works Director Michael Evans attended.
Robin Davidov, executive director of the waste disposal authority, declined to reveal how much the bids totaled, citing ongoing negotiations, but a 2005 study done by consultant R.W. Beck pegged the cost at $200 million for a 600-ton-per-day plant and $160 million for a combined 1,500-ton plant with Frederick County.
kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com
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3:27 PM MST on Sat., Aug. 9, 2008 re: "Sewage spill blamed on kitchen grease"
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Examiner Reader said:
I was told from a point pleasent home owner the spill was the result of a power outage and the lack of back up power genarators, not from grease? is this true? are there back up power units ready to pump sewage if the power fails?
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