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