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initially decided in March 2007 to site the transfer station at the site of the existing landfill slated <br />to close in 2011. Due to strong local neighborhood opposition, the Board of Orange County <br />Commissioners rescinded its decision and decided to conduct aCounty-wide transfer station site <br />search using a set of criteria to be determined by the BOCC with citizen input. That process is <br />now underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Following site selection, the <br />County is to design, permit, finance and construct the transfer station and hopes to fmish this <br />process before landfill closure. The site search process is being led by an engineering consultant <br />and directed by the BOCC with minimal solid waste management staff involvement. <br />Landfill gas capture and use is another solid waste planning activity the County is currently <br />undertaking. For three years, Orange County has been interested in capture and use of the <br />methane currently vented from its closed 45 acre landfill as well as that from the lined 26 acre <br />active MSW landfill. The BOCC has decided to negotiate a use agreement with University of <br />North Carolina to enable them to make use of the gas to power their new campus at Carolina <br />North. Using the methane for either direct heat or power as pipeline gas or combusting it to make <br />electricity and, ideally capturing the waste heat from the combustion turbines, would reduce the <br />proposed new campus' carbon footprint and help UNC meet its goal of a carbon neutral Carolina <br />North campus. <br />At this point, these three major elements of recycling program expansion, transfer station siting <br />and landfill gas capture are all being undertaken simultaneously within their own planning <br />constructs, but the integration of the three will occur in the fmancial analysis phase of the plan <br />due to be accomplished later this year. It is possible that same physical integration among the <br />three elements may occur. One possible synergy could be in the potential future siting of <br />recycling facilities at a transfer station site. Another is the potential to use some energy from <br />captured landfill gas to power solid waste operations in addition to those energy needs of UNC <br />that the gas might meet. <br />Next steps for plan development are shown in the attached memo to the Solid Waste Plan Work <br />Grroup delivered March 26, 2008. The responses to that memo at the March 26 meeting and by <br />the Solid Waste Advisory Board at their April 3 meeting are incorporated into the attached <br />version of the memo and indicated as such, using an alternate typeface and italics. <br />25 <br />