Agenda - 04-21-2009 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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L.a® ~ILTIVl~®®A~' Y ~S 1®@9is i S'a7 2.1 Waste to Enerav Alternatives As mentioned previously, GB&B conducted the Alternative Waste Processing Assessment1 to explore reasonable alternatives to landfill disposal of municipal solid wastes in Orange County. The study concluded that at Orange County's currenf level of solid wastes generation (less than 250 tons per day), the cost of financing, building, owning, and operating awaste-to-energy plant would be in the range of $100 per ton of refuse processed after sale of electricity generated from the heat recovered from incineration and sale of scrap metal recovered from the residual ash. Based upon the estimated costs of constructing and operating the transfer station, transport, and landfilling at a regional private-sector disposal site, GB&B concluded that it was not economical in the short term to .consider astand-alone waste combustion facility to handle waste from only ;. Orange County. It was also concluded that the other emerging technologies investigated in the ~. ~ study are at present not mature, practical, proven, or appropriate for managing large quantities of i ~ mixed solid waste. Significant permitting issues may prevent or significantly delay the ~ implementation of any waste-to-energy process. Based on these findings, the Orange County Solid Waste Advisory Board recommended that solid waste management efforts concentrate on getting the County's transfer station sited, permitted, designed, built, and operating, as well as continuing the County's successful and aggressive recycling efforts that are reducing the amount of waste to be landfilled. 2.2 Site Selection Once it was determined that the best option for the County would be the construction of a solid waste transfer station, the next step was determining the site of the facility. Through the process of collaboration between the Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and the public, three categories or sets of criteria were developed and applied in the evaluation of possible transfer station sites. These categories include exclusionary criteria, technical criteria, and community-specific criteria. ` ~ Briefly, exclusionary criteria include the stipulation of areas where development is prohibited by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. Exclusionary criteria also include consideration of land use, zoning requirements, watershed protection, and other factors that may significantly impact the ' environment, facility costs, or project implementation. Technical criteria include specific engineering, operation, and transportation parameters that should be considered to assure that sites ~ htto://www.olveccomloran eq county/PDF%20files/Alfemative Technologies Assessment %200range%20County%20NC%208-15-08pdf ®apnaL ~ Eppo IP ____. ____. _..... __ II ~ ' Environmental Assessment 3 'pro QpLp~ap Site 056