Today’s paper has a decent write up on the solid waste matter and Waste Connection’s apparent breach of agreement. The paper does not provide any real numbers but does mention Parry’s ‘sledgehammer” viewpoint on enforcement of the agreement. There is no mention of the revenue from metal reclamation or that the county has stopped running that part of the operation since it laid off four employees. In three months the site earned approximately $250,000, more than half of the capital cost of purchasing the metal reclamation equipment and it is estimated there is more than $1 million of recyclable metal in the ash trenches alone.
According to the paper all three commissioners are accepting the new report as accurate despite a conflicting report from 2009.
Of interest is the fact that Ron’s letter published in the World on Monday does not appear in the web edition of the paper. They cannot stand criticism.
Excellent point, Ron. Surely OSHA will have something to say about this and clearly, whoever made the decision to stop skinning the system had to be aware of the potential for toxic leaks. Where are the engineers who signed off on the various inspections and DEQ monitoring over the years?
As stated, our county comissioners are “accepting the new report (the Brady Report) as accurate”. If this is the case, a serious problem associated with operations at the facility has been completely overlooked in the public discussions to date.
On page 4 of the Brady Report, it states that air emissions from the facillity were tested during November, 2011. All standards were met, except those for dioxin and furans. Emissions for these two compounds were twice the maximum allowable limits. The problem was caused by the inability to maintain adequate temperatures in the secondary combustion chambers. The problem has not been corrected as of March, 2012, and no mention is made of how long these compounds had been relased prior to 2011.
Dioxin and the closely related furans are among the most toxic chemicals ever made by humans. The size of the dosage that can cause disease in animals is lower than that for any other man-made chemical. Very low doses are also suspected to cause human illness, including certain types of cancer.
Thus, it appears the malfeasance that has lead to the fiscal problems at the facility might have caused other types of problems also.
Based upon a brief conversation I had with Main after the last BOC meeting, he would not be the first person I would go to for informed answers.
We were promised that Bob Main would make an appearance on the JIm Bice radio program today to tell us all about the solid waste facilty and what’s the current status. No Main?