CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners yesterday unanimously approved, 3-0, a compromise to the county’s originally submitted Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan after hearing three options presented by Clearfield County Solid Waste Authority Director Jodi Brennan.
Brennan said last year, the commissioners accepted the Solid Waste Advisory Committee’s recommendation for Option 1 of Veolia Greentree’s response to the county’s request for proposals for integrated municipal solid waste management services. She said it was clearly the most responsive to the RFP’s criteria for selection, providing three options for the county’s consideration with each offer declining in value in correlation to the number of facilities the county contracted with for integrated waste management service.
“Option 1 was the most innovative and beneficial,” she said. This option required 100 percent of the county’s solid waste stream to be disposed of at the Veolia Greentree Landfill and provides for drop-off recycling services at a reduced cost of $100 per year, an annual savings of approximately $48,000. In addition, this option provided for a financial commitment of $140,000 annually to assist in sustaining the county’s waste management and recycling programs.
Brennan said as required by Act 101 and municipal solid waste regulations, the county presented this option through a public participation process, which consisted of a public comment period, a public hearing and a municipal officials and waste haulers meeting. She said through this public participation process, local waste haulers expressed concerns regarding the acceptance of Option 1.
In order to learn more about this issue and to assess solutions as required by municipal waste regulations, the commissioners met with local haulers several times over the past few months. Also, during that timeframe, the county initiated discussions with Veolia, exploring alternatives to Option 1 that would not only resolve local hauler issues, but also preserve the benefits of the original option.
Brennan said they’d reached a compromise acceptable to Veolia that allowed disposal at two, additional facilities. However, after presenting this alternative to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the county learned that DEP regulations and policy prohibited the compromise as formulated. She said the roadblock combined with the pending expiration of the county’s existing disposal contracts left the county with three options, including the original Option 1, which didn’t address any of the local haulers’ concerns as well as two other options.
According to Brennan, the county could select Veolia’s original Option 2, which allowed for the addition of a second facility to the plan, the Wayne Township Landfill located in Clinton County. Under this option, she said its benefits included the reduction in drop-off services by $24,000 annually an annual financial donation of $27,500.
In addition, she said this option would allow the county to accept Wayne Township Landfill’s proposal, offering an additional voluntary donation of $2 per ton of municipal waste delivered to the facility toward the sustainability of the county’s programs. She said this option would resolve most of the haulers’ concerns and provides for sustainability of a good portion of the county’s recycling and waste management programs.
“However, acceptance of it will produce a funding deficit of $73,500 per year that the Veolia Option 1 would have filled,” she said, adding Veolia had presented the county with a modified Option 2 for its consideration.
She said the modified version also allows the county to add the Wayne Township Landfill to its plan. In a letter dated March 22, she said Veolia had agreed to the modifying by adding an additional $10,000 in recycling services. She said the benefits included a reduction in drop-off service costs by $34,000 annually and an annual financial donation of $27,500.
In addition, she said the county would be able to accept the Wayne Township Landfill’s proposal that offers an additional voluntary donation of $2 per ton of municipal waste delivered to their facility toward the sustainability of the county’s programs. Like the previous option, she said this resolves most of the haulers’ concerns, but only produces a funding deficit of $63,500 per year that Option 1 would have filled.
The commissioners opted for the modified Option 2. Commissioner Joan Robinson-McMillen said the board wanted to promote small, locally owned businesses, and it didn’t want to step on their toes in any way.
“We wanted to make sure they had a seat at the table,” Commissioner Mark B. McCracken added by phone.
Brennan said this selection would require the commissioners to authorize the following steps as required by the state’s municipal solid waste regulations. She said she would immediately reconvene the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and present a revised plan to DEP. She would then advertise the plan’s adoption and upon adoption, immediately submit the plan to the county’s municipalities for ratification.
Brennan said she planned to meet with the advisory committee by mid-April and to submit plan revisions to DEP by the end of next month. She said she was aiming to have the plan adopted at the commissioners’ June 12 meeting and to initiate the ratifying process from municipal officials by mid-September.