Minutes - 20080415 - Transfer Station

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10 After particulate filtration and de-greasing, this wash water will contain various dissolved organic matter, metal salts, toxins, and microorganisms. Each day's garbage haul would potentially be different in the range and concentration of such matter. However, it would always contain both animal and human fecal material and microbes. It would always contain a substantial nutrient pool of rotting food, dissolved medicinals, leaked batteries, etc. The microbial concentration, including coliform bacteria would be extremely high. These microbes are aggressively digesting all this great stuff. That is why it smells. So, the water used to wash down the Transfer Facility would need to be disposed of safely and surely. The alternatives are either via a municipal sewer system or by collection and cartage from the site. Olver has suggested that carting tanker trucks of wash water is a viable option and would leave non-sewered sites available for consideration. However, trucking this water has several problems: The water has to be stored, it has to be transferred into a tanker truck and it has to be driven to a release or dumping site. Storage and transfer offer significant leakage risk, and tanker transfer is both a risk and an additional diesel fuel expense. Carting wash water adds to the site upkeep costs as long as the site is in operation. Remember, the very first leak of sewer-quality water will cause a huge uproar, with a likely cry for a sewer line in order to avoid a repeat mishap. This kind of secondary fix would really be expensive and call into question the credibility of the BOCC. I suggest you seriously consider adding among your criteria: 'Access to Municipal Sewer and Water', and weigh this as a 'Ten.- Fred Stang said that he was speaking on behalf of Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth, a group based in Orange County. He said that last Thursday's public information session was very informative on the siting process. He said that the consultants indicated that the criteria were not set in stone and that they were actively soliciting constructive suggestions from citizens about how the process might be tailored to reflect the will of the public. The attendees were unanimous that some site other than the Eubanks Road site be bound to the transfer station and made several worthy suggestions. The first suggestion was that the environmental justice component of the community-specific criteria be more heavily weighted and move to a position where it will be considered earlier in the process. Secondly, that a criterion be included that weights past history of association with the landfill as a factor that lowers the ranking of a potential site. Thirdly, that heavier consideration be given to the fact that continued heavy truck traffic along Eubanks Road, in light of the new schools being sited in the area, is undesirable. Lastly, that among the exclusionary criteria, the potential site location distances be increased to within 5 miles of major highways and within 15 miles of the projected waste generation centroid. The goal of these suggestions is to eliminate the Eubanks Road site from consideration and increase the chance that an alternative site would be chosen. He said that Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth stands in support of the Rogers/Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism and the Rogers/Eubanks Neighborhood Association, as well as many Orange County citizens in calling for the Board of County Commissioners to site the transfer station elsewhere. Reverend Robert Campbell read a letter. "Dear Chairman Jacobs and County Commissioners, On June 6, 2007, residents of the Rogers-Eubanks community began working with the Historic Rogers Road Community Enhancement Plan and Development and Monitoring Task Force. The Task Force was established by the Board of County Commissioners to address concerns related to the long-term presence of solid waste facilities in the community. Members of the community worked in good faith through the summer and fall of 2007 with representatives of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County to reach agreement on the priorities for the community.