Politicians' Positions on the Waste-to-Energy Incinerator
Frederick County Commissioner Bob White
Opposed to waste-to-energy incinerator
"The incinerator contracts appear to leave the Frederick and Carroll County taxpayers at dangerous risk for cost escalation and the potential necessity to burn recyclables. The siting at McKinney, directly next to and in the viewshed of the Monocacy National Battlefield — our county's historic Civil War treasure, is unacceptable."
From Bob White's website:
Solid Waste Disposal / WTE
Position: I oppose the existing plan for a WTE. I support maximizing our recycling efforts while continuing to transport our non-recyclable waste stream to out-of-county landfills for the time being. I also support study of initiating a “pay as you throw” solid waste disposal plan to further incentivize recycling and allocate the costs of non-recyclable solid waste disposal according to the volume of an individual or business’s waste generation.
Reason: The incinerator contracts are full of ratchet and escalation clauses that could cost us additional, unplanned millions to hundreds of millions of dollars. It would be a bad contract anytime, but in today’s economy it is insupportable. It places all the financial responsibility on the shoulders of taxpayers in Frederick and Carroll counties, while giving ownership without responsibility to another, a quasi-governmental agency – the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority.For years we have had a Solid Waste Management Plan that stated we should not accept out-of-county trash and refuse. Building a WTE facility would turn that reasonable policy upside down. We would not only be importing Carroll County’s solid waste, but probably would have to import additional waste from elsewhere outside the county to keep the fires of the incinerator fed. That would add not only to our traffic problems, but probably also to our roadside trash as well.
Siting the 150-foot high (or thereabouts) smokestack necessary for the incinerator immediately next to one of our county’s premier historical tourist attractions, the Monocacy National Battlefield, goes beyond foolishness to verge on sacrilege. It has been opposed by none less than the National Park Service.
The WTE process is also counterproductive as it undermines our emphasis on achieving a maximum recycling effort, since the most valuable waste for burning at the high level need for energy production is also the most recyclable (paper and plastics).
It is not reasonable to expect even the most massive recycling effort to eliminate our disposable solid waste stream. But it is reasonable to work to maximize recycling while continuing the current transporting of our non-recyclable wastes to out-of-county commercial landfills. This will preclude the necessity for building an incinerator of dubious long-term value and a massive cost, while new means of more effective and less impactful long term waste disposal technology continue to be developed and tested.
