Post-closure landfill costs projected at almost $300,000 - Crossville Chronicle

CROSSVILLE — Commissioners on the budget committee had to readjust sanitation fund budget figures by nearly $300,000 to allow for post-closure landfill costs.

"After we got everything done we realized we hadn't allowed for costs associated with the post-closure landfill costs. The finance office always has been allowed some leeway and authority in adjusting numbers on the budget by the committee. What we did in order to balance those anticipated costs was move 1.5 cents from debt service over to the sanitation fund," said Cumberland County Finance Director Nathan Brock.

Mike Harvel, 7th District commissioner, who also works in the county's solid waste department, said he amended the sanitation fund budget to allow more revenue for the fund by decreasing projected leachate costs from $300,000 to $200,000 and costs for recycling bins of $8,500.

"Since it (the landfill) is closed we won't have as much costs with the leachate as we had before. So that should save at least $100,000," Harvel said.

Brock said, "It's of course up to the committee, but this was the easiest way to adjust this. The tax-rate remains the same and we just moved the 1.5 cent to make the adjustment for the figures to match the projected numbers," Brock said.

With the adjustment, the projected fund balance for the sanitation fund would be $294,639.

"How do you feel about the fund balance? Could we make it a half-cent less? I'd like to see more go back to debt service. Once it's there it won't go back," 9th District Commissioner and Budget Committee Chairman Carmin Lynch said.

"I don't mind. It's up to Nathan (Brock). He pays the bills. I feel fine about it. This budget's cut to the bone. We may have to come back later in the year and adjust it again. I don't know," Harvel said.

"How does the committee feel?" Lynch asked.

Harry Sabine, 1st District commissioner then made a motion to leave the adjustment alone as it is the way the finance department adjusted the sanitation fund and draw down the fund balance on the sanitation fund if necessary later in the year. Sonya Rimmer, 8th District commissioner, supported the motion.

It was unanimously approved.

Commissioners and committee members Johnny Presley, 3rd District, and Charles Seiber, 4th District, did not attend the meeting.

With the adjustment, the breakdown of the 2011-'12 tax rate of $1.425 will be:

General Fund — 55 cents

Solid Waste/Sanitation Fund — 14 cents

General Purpose School Fund — 56.5 cents

General Debt Service — 17 cents

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Waste firm Biffa hit with £27000 fine for stench at Wearside rubbish dump - Sunderland Echo

 Joyce Dixon of Friends of Houghton.

A WASTE management company has been fined £27,000 after residents kicked up a stink about smells from a rubbish dump.

Houghton residents complained to the Environment Agency (EA) about the landfill site.

Inspectors visited the dump in Houghton Quarry, which was twice found to be smelling so badly that it was breaking the law.

Owner Biffa admitted two offences under the Environmental Planning Regulations Act at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecuting for the EA, Paul Harley said inspector Gary Wallace visited the tip on February 7 last year.

He found a large pile of uncovered waste which had a foul-smelling liquid – known as leachate – running from it.

On March 2, inspector Alice Evans was called out to investigate a smell of rotten eggs in Cathedral View. Residents complained it was “pungent, gassy and a strong rotten stench”.

However she did not visit the landfill site, as it was about 9pm.

Defending, Ray Clarke called the two incidents “isolated lapses”.

He said: “Biffa would like to apologise for these regrettable incidents.

“We regret the circumstances which led to the prosecution and would like to apologise to the court, the regulator and the individuals who were affected on these particular days.”

A further three charges were dropped by the EA.

Magistrates fined Biffa £15,000 for the first offence and £12,000 for the second.

Costs of £8,250 were also ordered.

Joyce Dixon, 86, from Newbottle, a member of pressure group Residents Against Toxic Site, sat through the hearing.

Afterwards she said: “We have suffered throughout the years and it has been hell.

“We are happy that they have been brought to court.”

In a statement, Buckinghamshire-based Biffa, said: “Biffa is committed to operating all waste facilities to high standards in order to ensure the continued protection of the environment and therefore apologies for the situation which led to this prosecution.

“In addition Biffa has worked hard to rectify the situation.

“Throughout investigations, it co-operated fully with the Environment Agency and a new site management team has undertaken a series of engineering works.

“This has included the installation of further has control pipe work and site capping work in order to prevent a reoccurrence.

“The company is also working closely with its regulators and hopes to liaise more closely with key stakeholders in the community to further improve relationships.”

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Investigation Reveals Potential Public Health Hazard - WVNS-TV

CHARLESTON -- Scientists call it "leachate." Trash haulers call it "compacter juice." It's the awful stuff that trickles, oozes and splashes out the back of the trucks that haul your garbage.

No question it's dirty. But our news department wondered if it was also dangerous.

(The video above is not related to the article but we thought it might interest you.)

So we had it tested. What we found shocked the seasoned experts we consulted. And it may mean the street where you live has a lot more in common with an open sewer in a Third World country than you ever imagined.

We followed compactor trucks on three separate days in different parts of Charleston, watching them crush trash and squeeze out smelly trails and pools of liquid on dozens of streets. It quickly became clear the cloudy fluid was pouring out into puddles or being drizzled in looping arcs up one street and down another.

But is it dangerous?

We took samples from a random truck on a random day. Not a scientific study, but a kind of snapshot of the contamination draining onto the streets from city garbage trucks.

"When I first saw the results for the fecal coliform, for the E. coli, I was pretty shocked at the large amount of bacteria found in the leachate," said Anita Ray, Environmental Health Director at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. "I am not used to seeing counts that high in things that we would routinely sample, such as outflow from a malfunctioning sewage system."

That's right. Contamination levels in the liquid are so high the only thing to compare it to is untreated sewage.

"Quite obviously," said Ray, "from the lab results that you have pulled just from this one snapshot in time, it indicates there is a pretty high potential for a public health hazard."

The bacteria E. Coli can make you extremely sick, or even kill you. It's also used as an indicator of other dangerous microorganisms. It's so dangerous, levels of E. coli in treated wastewater, for instance, can't be more than a few hundred when it's poured into the Kanawha River (depending on the number of tests). But one leachate sample we took spewing from the back of a garbage truck came back with a reading well over 4,000,000. Another was 16,000,000. And a third pegged the meter. All the lab could determine was that it was above 60,000,000.

That's why Ray calls these puddles and wet trails on your streets a potential public health hazard. Even after it dries, it's picked up on shoes, stroller wheels, anything.

"The worst case scenario, as I've said before," Ray said, "is if you have a child that has a ball or something and runs through the street, the object runs through this stuff and then the child contacts it with their hands, then puts their hand in their mouth or whatever, you've got a real potential for a transfer of that E. coli into the child's system."

How does Ray account for readings that high?

"If I might speculate, which I don't like to do ordinarily," Ray offered, "it could also be because the trucks -- and I have no idea of knowing this -- may not be cleaned out on a daily basis, and that may be showing up as a accumulative residue, if you will, of that bacteria along with the day's collection."

In other words, an unwashed truck could wind up being a big Petri dish, collecting and growing bacteria over time, and then spewing it out onto your street for your kids to play in and your dog to track into the house. And maybe make you very sick.

You can find a copy of our lab results here.

In the second part of this Hometown Investigation, we'll look under Charleston garbage trucks to figure out why so many leave wet trails of dangerous leachate behind, and we'll reveal the $10 fix for the problem.

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How to Manage Food Waste - Alternatives to Landfill Where it Adds to Leachate Production - Natural Resources Defense Council (blog)

Food waste is approximately 14% of the household waste we discard. Food waste is of concern to environmental agencies and municipalities because in landfills food waste is a primary cause of methane gas emissions, a very potent greenhouse gas, and the methanogens that food waste supports in landfills also cause the mobilization of other pollutants in landfills, resulting in an increase in both air pollutants and leachate.

In waste combustors, food waste is a cause of nitrogen oxide emissions, which is also a greenhouse gas, as well as a cause of smog and respiratory illness. Moreover, since food waste can contain as much as 70% water, it is not a high Btu fuel, and therefore is not well-suited for combustion. The best disposal option for food waste is neither landfilling nor incineration. Ideally, food waste should be composted. If you have a compost bin where you live, you can incorporate food waste into your home compost – if not, consider setting up a home compost system. Home composting avoids transportation of organic wastes, saving fuel and other resources associated with transporting waste. There are many resources describing the options for home composting, including http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=441 – these range from backyard bins to vermicompost (worm bins), and can be tailored to fit your needs. In some communities (such as San Francisco), food waste is collected in curbside recycling programs, usually along with yard waste. Typically, in a municipal composting system, you can compost a wider variety of wastes (including animal products and food-soiled paper) than you might be able to accommodate in home composting. Check with your local waste management authority to find options for the disposal of food and yard wastes in your community.

If you don’t have access to composting, you can dispose of most food waste in under-sink food waste disposers, also known as garbage disposals. Many municipal wastewater treatment facilities have anaerobic digesters that extract energy in the form of biogas from solids in the waste water, and most can produce soil amendments such as fertilizer from processed solids. Some wastewater treatment systems benefit from the addition of food solids, because that can make the process of converting waste into energy more efficient, but too much or the wrong types of food waste can overwhelm the system. This is one of the reasons it makes sense to use in-sink disposers as a complement to municipal and backyard composting programs. Moreover, in-sink food disposal systems increase the amount of water used at home. Although this increase is only a small amount for any individual home, the added water from tens of thousands of homes switching to in-sink disposal units can be significant. Finally, cooking oils, fats, and greases should never be disposed of down the drain. Even if you use hot water, detergents, or garbage disposals, oils can congeal in pipes and potentially contribute to sewage backups.

To sum up, food scraps should not be sent to landfills or incinerators. Instead, the best option for disposing of food waste is composting, whether at home or in a municipal system. The next best option is typically an in-sink waste disposer – but check to make sure your community isn’t running low on water before using garbage disposals, and make sure only to put allowed wastes down the drain.

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