Agenda - 11-09-2005-2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM To: John L,inlc, County Manager From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Director Subject: Orange County Solid Waste to Alamance County Date: November 7, 2005 On August 12, 2005, BOCC Chair Moses Carey, Manager Jolm L,ii~i<, and Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson met in Graham with representatives of Alamance County. The meeting was a result of an inquiry by Alamance County regarding the possibility of Orange County solid waste being delivered to the Alamance County Landfill. The meeting was essentially exploratory, with no proposals being offered or solicited. The basis of the discussion, from Alamance County's perspective, is a continuing reduction of incoming toimage to the Alamance County landfill due to private waste haulers increasingly transporting waste to out-of-county disposal facilities, resulting in a significant decline in tipping fee revenue. From Orange County's perspective, the local landfill will reach capacity in five years, at which time waste must be transfen-ed to an out-of=county landfill. An Alamance County landfill option may present an opportunity to minimize hauling distances and the accompanying transportation costs.. The Alamance County prospect could also provide Orange County with the option of advancing the transfer of waste prior to the Ioca1 latidf II reaching capacity, thus prolonging the life of the Orange County landfill. This memorandum will examine some of the financial and operational aspects of delivering Orange County waste to the Almnance County Landfill. This analysis is not intended to explore every facet of the issue in detail, but only to examine the various issues to the degree that the BOCC can determine whether there is sufficient interest to further pursue the matter, have additional dialogue with Alamance County, or to discuss proposal options. Preserving landfill space at our existing facility by transferring waste to anout-of=county landfill raises regulatory issues.. Orange County camiot.just cease using the landfill indefinitely. If the facility is not used for a period exceeding 30 days, one foot of immediate cover must be placed. Additional restrictions also exist that would disallow airy mothballing of the facility. This means that some reduced level of landfilling would have to continue. For this reason, the following analysis does not contemplate any scenario in which all Orange County waste would be shipped to Alamance in the near-term. Staff has not yet conducted an enviromnental compliance audit of the Alamance County landfill, as it is somewhat time consuming. Following this report and deliberation by the BOCC, staff is prepared to obtain all necessary enviromnental information available regarding the Alamance County facility if the BOCC wishes to further explore utilizing the Alamance Cotmty landfill. Staff strongly reconunends this as reasonable and necessary due diligence. One issue paramount to discussion concerning transferring waste from Orange County to any distant facility is that of a Transfer Station. A transfer station is a structure used Co unload incoming