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Minutes amor Regular Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board February 5, 2009 Approved March 5, 2009 Walser states that I know it' s the Commissioners' decision but we talked about green and environmental concerns how green is it for them to take 142 acres and turn it into a brown field . Sassaman states that my opinion is that it doesn' t make any sense [ to site it there] and the SWAB didn' t recommend siting it there . Hauser states that we ' ve given you an option that says let' s take a little more time and think this through . Unlike twenty years ago given the change in the Federal government administration, given the new focus on renewable energy resources and the tax credits that are likely to be put in place, the interest in the community in waste-to -energy and the overall green solution that maybe the time is now . Here is what I am pretty sure of -- that if we have all resources invested in building a waste transfer station we will not be working on waste-to -energy . Spire states that all major groups including Orange County, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough are interested in that venture . There is a lot of planning and analysis into a comprehensive study that has been going on for four to five years . Walser asks if this decision has anything to do with that plan. Wilson replies that the transfer station issue doesn ' t but the plan deals with everything else . What you all propose is reasonable and the County should respond and do an open and honest analysis and let the chips fall where they may . We ' re going to try to do that. It does seem to be a little narrower than the real world situation here . As far as where a transfer station should go, the basic function of a transfer station is to receive the waste from the various collection routes consolidate them to larger vehicles and haul them to its ultimate designation whether it' s a waste -to-energy facility or a landfill . The key component of where a transfer station is closest to where the waste is generated . The controlling factor is not where it is going to go from the transfer station . Of all the private haulers you spoke with not one of them have an office or operation in Orange County ? None have had a strong commitment or have shown a strong commitment to this community . Private haulers as part of their business model when they operate a transfer station the key is to push as much waste through that transfer station as they possible can. That is how they make money . Local governments have a different perspective . Our perspective of the landfill even though it is economically disadvantageous to us, is to bury only what is absolutely needed to be buried . It' s a different mindset, I want to divert as much from the landfill as possible and will do so 15