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Margaret Brown <br />Page 4 <br />Point A8: _ No use of the power of eminent domain for acouiring land for a sanitary landfill <br />We would request that the Commissioners clarify whether this policy would apply also to acquisition of <br />land for other solid waste management facilities, such as a construction and demolition waste landfill, <br />materials recovery facility or a transfer station. We believe that it would be difficult, maybe <br />impossible, to site one of these facilities without the possibility of using eminent domain. <br />We believe that it is unlikely that a new sanitary landfill could be acquired in Orange County without <br />the use of eminent domain proceedings. <br />Regardless, it appears that a decision has been passively made not to have another mixed solid waste <br />landfill in Orange County. There is no effort now being made to identify a site for a landfill. There is no <br />discussion of initiating a process to do so. The present landfill wr11 be fun in 2005 -06, and it takes <br />about 5 years from the point of transfer of title to disposal of the first bag of garbage in a new landfill. <br />Therefore, we believe that the community should be planning for a transfer station, including searching <br />for a site. <br />Point A9: Hither costs of operating muhinle <br />We anticipate that a construction and demolition (C&D) landfill and a materials recovery facility <br />(MRF) will need to operate mnultaneously with either a mixed solid waste landfill or a transfer station. <br />The two former facilities are necessary to minimize the solid waste that must be either landfilled or <br />transported out of county to a final disposal fatality. <br />The attached March 12 memorandum from the Solid Waste Director to the Landfill Owners Group <br />explains the issues related to the simultaneous operation of a landfill and a transfer station and why we <br />do not recommend it. The key points are: <br />• fixed costs of landfill operation are such that reducing the volumes received would not <br />reduce the costs significantly <br />• building and operating a transfer station is expensive, especially because our waste stream <br />is relatively small; reducing the waste stream would likely increase the unit costs of transfer <br />and transportation <br />We would recommend operating a transfer station only if it were necessary to fill the time interval <br />between the closing of the present landfill and the opening of another, or if the decision is made to <br />avoid an in- county landfill in the firture. <br />The simultaneous operation of a MRF and either a landfill or a transfer station is a key point of the <br />integrated solid waste management plan. The MRF would be necessary to maximize recycling and, <br />therefore, to reduce to the greatest extent possible the waste either being iandfilled in Orange County <br />or needing transportation to an out -of- county landfill. <br />As noted in the discussion above of the Landfill Fund's reserves, we believe that existing reserves and <br />future landfill revenues, if continued as currently projected, could fund the acquisition of property for a <br />