DATE: September 24, 2001
The Orange County Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) is a newly constituted board that has met on a monthly basis for the last year. The SWAB is made up of two representatives from each of the Orange County towns (Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough) and the County, and an ad hoc member representing the University. In addition, a member of the Board of Orange County Commissioners and solid waste staff participate in the meetings.
In addition to procedural issues associated with a new entity, substantive issues addressed by the board included the following.
· Construction Debris Landfill Ordinance and Its Impact On The Landfill Operations.
· Rogers Road Landfill Adjacent Property Owner’s Water Supply Issue.
· Solid Waste Enterprise Budget, Solid Waste Management Plan, and Waste Disposal And Recycling Trends Impacts On The Long-Term Solid Waste Enterprise Economic Viability.
· Pay As You Throw Trash Collection Ordinance Recommendations.
The SWAB recommended adoption of a construction debris landfill ordinance with a suggestion for simplification of the permitting processes. Several options for managing construction debris waste at the landfill were discussed, including automation of the process unsorted construction debris. Estimates of the amount of waste required to make this operation economically sustainable exceeded the projected volume generated by Orange County. For instance, the waste generated through the execution of the University Bond at Chapel Hill will be processed through the General Contractors arrangements and might not be handled by Orange County. It appears that an economically viable recycling facility for unsorted construction debris would require a joint effort with another County.
A major portion of several SWAB meetings was expended on dealing with the provision of public water supply to the Rogers Road residents. Based on the briefings provided it was resolved that public funds, primarily from the Solid Waste Management Department reserves, be used to pay for all costs except the interior plumbing, and payment of monthly water bills. The mains are estimated to cost about $550,000 and the other publicly financed portions of the system about $275,000. The SWAB also recommended making loans for interior plumbing to individuals who meet a means test. Such loans would not be undertaken by the Solid Waste Management Department but by some other public entity. No public payment for monthly water consumption was recommended.
Issues associated with the Solid Waste Enterprise budget have been at the forefront of many of the SWAB’s deliberations and all involve the County’s Solid Waste Management Plan as well as the impacts of waste disposal and recycling trends on the overall economic viability of the enterprise. The solid waste landfill is expected to be full in 2006 and thus will no longer receive solid waste and thus will no longer provide a revenue stream from tipping fees for the enterprise. In addition, there will be various issues and expenses associated with handling and removing the solid waste collected by towns and the county that must be disposed of. As we increase the rate of recycling, the total costs of recycling increase, yet most of the dollar-generating waste material stream that would have gone to the landfill is diverted, decreasing the available funds.
The Solid Waste Management Plan for Orange County was reviewed. Several questions were raised by members about the goals and requirements in the plan. It was determined that SWAB role was not to modify the plan. The SWAB role is to advise the county commissioners on whatis required to accomplish the goals in the plan.
At its last regular meeting in August, the SWAB appointed a committee, chaired by Jan Sassaman. This Alternative Financing Committee has been charged with the task of evaluating possible mechanisms to finance the Solid Waste Enterprise and report back to the SWAB. This Committee has been examining the proposed county-wide solid waste plan previously adopted and reaffirmed by the local governments as part of its preliminary financial analysis related to future financing.
The SWAB has developed a timeline for its alternative finance work:
· August 01 - Creation of Alternative Finance Committee
· December 01 – Committee Recommendations to SWAB
· January/February 01 – SWAB Recommendations to BOCC
Pay as you Throw (PAYT) was discussed in January and February at the request of the County Manager in an attempt to recommending how he might discuss Chapel Hill’s proposal with Commissioners for their response. Essentially, the board had a diversity of opinion and could not agree on a recommendation to support or not support Chapel Hill’s proposal. It was expressed that there was a lack of coordination between the governments on implementing PAYT though and the spirit was good it is difficult to do one town at a time. The SWAB agreed that this is an interesting experiment that should be evaluated to see how effective it is in reducing waste per capita.