Prince George’s seeking public input on site of solid-waste transfer station

Such a facility is where garbage is sorted and transported elsewhere, according to Maria Martin of the county’s planning department, the point person in developing criteria for where the county will build the station.

In the next month, beginning Tuesday at Prince George’s Ballroom in Landover, the county’s planning department will host three meetings to get public input.

Martin said the department has gathered criteria used by other communities from around the country for Prince George’s residents to evaluate. Those include environmental impact, topography and location to roads or rail.

In October or November, Martin said, the planning department will present its preliminary findings to the council and by year-end will have more detailed research about which sites best meet the criteria.

Dennis Bigley, acting deputy director of the county’s department of environmental resources, said the Brown Station Road landfill is expected to reach its permitted capacity of 9.4 million tons of solid waste by the end of 2011. He estimated a transfer station would cost $10 million to build.

“A transfer station is the only option for waste management in the county,” Bigley said. He said it would take about three years to build the station once it’s approved, compared with about six for a landfill. A transfer station, he said, requires 10 to 15 acres, compared with at least 250 for a landfill.

Bigley said the County Council will have the final say about the site location.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Prince George’s branch of the Sierra Club thinks the county should build a landfill.

“The county needs to deal with its own problems,” Charles Reilly said. “And if we want to do the right thing, a landfill is ethically, and financially and environmentally, a better solution.”

dfowler@dcexaminer.com