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Minutes - Regular Meeting <br /> Solid Waste Advisory Board <br /> February 5, 2009 <br /> Approved March 5, 2009 <br /> Sassaman summarizes that working on waste-to -energy facilities I spent two years <br /> and billed $500, 000 just do the risk study . After eight to ten years of analysis it never <br /> got off the ground because it wasn' t permitted and the community did not want it <br /> once they saw what it was . There is no guarantee that there ever will be a waste- to- <br /> energy facility within a reasonable distance of the centroid in Orange County . What <br /> we are looking at is a situation where, while we would like to see a waste-to -energy <br /> facility, there has been talk about it for seven years; we have been saying it to the <br /> Board of Commissioners for seven years and it hasn ' t gotten anywhere . We have a <br /> two -year window to do something and then we are going to have Mt. Trashmore . A <br /> reasonable window for a waste transfer station [to operate] is 20 years . It is very <br /> important that Orange County maintains its green and ethical approach to handling <br /> garbage from an environmental standpoint. We can do that because we ' ve exercised a <br /> high degree of control . We are looking and trying to do something in the interim, be <br /> that 5, 10, or 20 years, without disrupting a very successful and very good ongoing <br /> operation. If say we want to continue doing what we are doing but for the next five <br /> years we will hire Waste Management to come in and take over things, five years <br /> when we are ready for Hary he will not be here . When we are ready for Gayle he will <br /> be not be here except he will be sitting on the landfill maintaining the cap . Meanwhile <br /> all the profits from the operation will go to somebody ' s pocket and not to maintaining <br /> the landfill which has to be maintained for about 30 years . <br /> Hauser states that she doesn ' t understand that. As soon as the landfill closes and as <br /> soon as we build and operate a waste transfer station that is going to cost us money . <br /> Maybe we could raise our tipping fees way over what it is going to cost us but there is <br /> no more net revenue coming into us . Just talking about cost if it' s cheaper to me to do <br /> a vendor than to do it myself don' t I make more money? <br /> Sassaman states that some of the stuff you [Orange County Voice] talk about, carbon <br /> footprint and the green stuff, it is my feeling that once we give up our control over the <br /> directional aspect of our waste disposal we give up our ability to do the <br /> environmentally right thing . <br /> Norwood states that I mentioned the word control first. Let me try this from a <br /> different point. The new big ritzy houses use Waste Industries to pick up their waste <br /> and they also use Orange County recycling less and less because they don ' t have to . <br /> Waste Industries will pickup anything they put in the cart. Why do the work, they <br /> don' t have to separate the recycling . If we bring in private contractors who will haul <br /> it off then they don' t have to recycle . <br /> Walser states that so many people are concerned about the environment these days I <br /> don ' t know that that is a valid argument. I have neighbors who put out three bins <br /> every other week . People are very conscious of recycling and they don' t have to do it. <br /> 13 <br />