Published: July 09, 2008 11:54 am      

Second cell at Mountainview Landfill could include compost site; negotiations continue

CUMBERLAND - A second cell at Mountainview Landfill could include a compost site, an increased annual capacity and higher tipping fees. Right now, however, everything's open for discussion.

During a Tuesday work session, Steve Young, Allegany County director of public works, updated the county commissioners on negotiations with Waste Management, which operates the 39-acre cell on New Georges Creek Road near Frostburg.

Young said a July 2007 study gave three options for future solid waste disposal. The county could construct a transfer station, construct a new landfill or expand the existing site. The report recommended the latter as being the most affordable option of the three and putting the county with the least liability.

Waste Management's contract with the county runs through Feb. 2, 2013. The current cell has a projected life of another three years after that date, said Alisa Kyle, district manager.

A new contract would be for 20 years. Annual tonnage would increase to 135,000 tons from 125,000 tons in 2013 and increase another 10,000 tons at subsequent five-year intervals. The exceptions are years 2013 through 2017, when the annual tonnage would be 137,000 - an estimated 87,000 tons of in-county waste and, per the contract, no less than 50,000 tons generated out of county.

Recycling is on the rise, Young said, but the tonnage increase is necessary "to meet the growing waste stream needs."

Higher collection results in higher tipping fees for users. Those fees would be based on the Consumer Price Index and increase about 3 percent a year, Young said, in addition to a fuel surcharge and a 4.2 percent environmental surcharge. Tipping fees could be higher if necessary to cover the cost of permitting and operations.

The contract would stipulate that Waste Management provide a backup space should the Mountainview facility become inoperable for any reason. If the fault is the county's, government would pick up the tab for hauling the waste elsewhere. Otherwise, the costs would fall to Waste Management.

Young said the expansion could include a compost site if space is available, although no design plans have been submitted to the Maryland Department of the Environment, as well as a single-stream recycling center. Instead of users having to separate recyclable material, it could all be dumped into one container and be separated elsewhere.

Young said it's a sensible possibility. Trucks now are hauling garbage in and leaving empty.

"They could haul recyclables to a center down state," he said. "It seems to be something nationwide that's catching on."

The facility also could build a leachate sewer extension line from the landfill to the new George's Creek Wastewater Treatment Plan. Leachate, the liquid that drains from a landfill, currently is collected and hauled by truck. It's a "major operating cost to the landfill," Young said.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.