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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinal Minutes 10.24.2013SWAC Minutes: October 24, 2013 Page 1 of 5 JEFFERSON COUNTY SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES – Thursday, October 24, 2013 Jefferson County Public Works Building, Conference Room 1. OPENING BUSINESS: Meeting called to order by John Merchant at 3:02 PM Members Present: John Merchant – City of Port Townsend John Austin – County Commissioner Jenifer Taylor – Citizen-At-Large Kent Kovalenko – DM Disposal; Murrey’s Disposal (arrived late) Matt Hall – Skookum Al Cairns – Port of Port Townsend Members Absent: Val Johnstone – District #1 Paul Roglund – District #2 Staff: Richard Talbot – Public Works Solid Waste Manager Jerry Mingo, MRW/SW Coordinator Gail Gautestad – Public Works Administrative Staff Guests: Aaron Lawhead, Republic Services (Roosevelt Landfill) Lisa Crosby There is a Quorum Approval of Minutes: John Austin moved and Matt Hall seconded to accept as presented. Motion carried. Correspondence: None Guest Speaker: Jerry Mingo, Jefferson County staff “Notes on Island County Hazardous Waste Programs” I am in the middle of week 2 in my new position. I am a 23-year veteran of Hazardous Waste and Recycle Programs in Island County where I had been commuting to/ from Port Townsend all of those years. I am learning the ropes here with Jefferson County and have been impressed with the professionalism of those with whom I have rubbed elbows thus far. I have a strong bias towards customer service, having been responsible for training Island County’s solid waste staff. Hazardous waste training refreshers each year with, “Who do we work for?” As far as I am concerned, I answer to Richard and Monte but I work for the public and usually put public requests in front of everything else I am doing. When I went to Island County, I was responsible for taking a blank footprint and designing a moderate risk waste program. In 2006, there was a peak of just under 500,000 lbs of moderate risk waste. Hazardous materials can do harm to people and the environment. Accordingly, there are some loose cannons among other wastes that are extremely dangerous. Island County has a working relationship SWAC Minutes: October 24, 2013 Page 2 of 5 with Washington State Patrol who would come out and detonate materials that were suspected of having peroxide crystals under their caps. Part of my job had been keeping staff safe from these hazards. Island County has three satellite transfer stations in addition to a central long haul transfer station. My superiors agreed to have satellite household satellite waste collection locations. The Dept. of Ecology now recognizes satellite stations as a subset of the regulated facilities. I believe that satellite collection stations originated in Island County. But the point is that I was then tasked with training staff of about 18 to recognize when they were in harm’s way. A value of these programs is reducing the liability to the County and the people that pay for these services by exercising due diligence to reduce the toxicity of the waste stream. By and large, it is a successful program. I am happy to answer any questions about our satellite facilities or hazardous waste facility. Q. Was there moderate risk waste acceptance at all of your facilities? A. Household hazardous waste was collected at all of Island County’s facilities. Business wastes needed to come in by appointment which gave us an opportunity know what is coming in. It is also beneficial to the businesses because the moderate risk waste technicians were scheduled to be in the facility rather than working in the field. Q. Since you were next to a large military base, did you have ordnance brought in? A. In the early years, we did. Naval Air Station Whidbey Island has an environmental office and they were always good about coming down and picking up materials that were labeled for military use. But in the last 15 years, I don’t think we had really seen any materials at all. Q. How many FTE’s did it take to maintain the central facility and the satellite stations? A. The solid waste program for Whidbey and Camano Islands has 30 employees, including a full time accountant and a full time accounts payable tech, manager, operations supervisor and my position. We varied between 15 and 18 solid waste attendants and about five solid waste techs. Q. Did you pay for those services through CPG’s and tip fees? A. We used nearly all of our coordinated prevention grant resource for the moderate risk waste program. On occasions, I would use those funds for other projects. To Al’s credit, I cut and pasted the compost worm box program from Jefferson County for use in Island County. It is a good example of a decentralized means of managing food waste. The program was in a coordinated prevention grant application recently. My successor in Island County and some Washington State University outreach specialists are moving forward on that program. Q. Was your operation at all supported by the General Fund? A. No. Our commissioners had access to our revenues for their General Fund. We operated as an enterprise fund. Action Items: None 2. OPERATIONAL REPORTS: Education In Pinky’s absence, Richard reported that Pinky is continuing to work on the education items she has talked about in the past. She continues to be short-staffed as Jen has not been replaced. SWAC Minutes: October 24, 2013 Page 3 of 5 Recycle: Matt Hall We are coming in to a slow season and have fewer commodities. It was a busy summer. When I say it is slowing down, it means we can actually take a breath. Purchase of a new skidder has been put off because of the government shut-down. We are looking at the beginning of next year for replacement of the baler. I went through a few vendors and looked at baler machines in Idaho and Eastern Washington to find the best machine for the job. We decided to go to an auto-tie system so we can better utilize the baling shift. Richard noted that the County is reviewing Matt’s proposal for a baler to see how it ties into the contract. The County contract with Skookum reserves the County’s right to acquire the equipment if Skookum no longer has the contract. Skookum owns all collection, processing and hauling equipment except for the baler, fluffer, conveyor and the buildings, which are owned by Jefferson County. The solid waste business is a capital intense one. There is no cheap equipment out there for doing the job. That is the reason you try to maintain reserves. There is not any indication that there is a change in the amount of contamination that is going into the glass bins. Skookum is considering stenciling the windows on the glass bins and stenciling on the front. Out of 25 tons, they are pulling out probably 4-6 yards of contaminate. A lot of the contaminate is plastic and paper, ceramics and window glass. When recycling glass, the type of glass causes problems, rather than the thickness of the glass, because the products do not melt at the same temperature. If there a fleck of porcelain in the glass, you lose a batch of new bottles. Skookum is stockpiling plastics right now. Tacoma Recycling went out of business. We will be using JMK Fibers in Tacoma, where they have delayed their opening to November. They are installing two new balers and three sorting lines. China’s “Green Fence” is reducing the amount of contamination they will accept in recycling materials, is causing a lot of businesses to shut down because the businesses have so much contaminated tonnage they cannot ship it. We have to keep our product clean. There is a lot of domestic demand for the plastic 1’s and 2’s, and the same with the 5’s and 3’s. What is on the Skookum list is easily sold. It is a matter of having someone give us the characterizations that are required for TAP – Tin/Aluminum/Plastic loads. Compost: John Merchant Business as usual. Yard waste is still coming in and when we are open, we are selling about 30 yards of compost a day. We have had to purchase some wood debris or chips earlier this year because we were running out of wood material for our compost. People are not doing a lot of clearing right now due to the economy. When the fee for the accepting yard debris was put in place, it lowered the amount of incoming yard waste by about 50%. Also, construction has dropped off. People are finding other uses, such as composting, including Hugelkultur. The fee will not be changed any time soon. We don’t break even, but it is an operation to deal with our biosolids and septic, and the yard debris that we do get Solid Waste: Richard Recycle is up and waste tonnage is up, which may indicative that the economy is generally a bit stronger. We basically have our final CPG agreement routed through Ecology– the whole process for integrating the reporting system into their website is a bit behind but basically we have the money since it is being used to fund recycle operations, they have no issues for us since we aren’t waiting to start a project to use their funds. SWAC Minutes: October 24, 2013 Page 4 of 5 • We have a new forklift. • We are advertising for a District #3 SWAC member. • We are grateful Jerry is here. There are a lot of things that need to be caught up on. • The version of credit card processing software at the Transfer Station is no longer being supported by the current vendor. We need to get an updated version or find another vendor by the end of the year. • We are plagued with our internet connection; we go down when nobody else is having problems. In theory when a new NOANET link gets put in we may see some improvement. We maintain two systems. The old telephone system is our back-up in case something goes down, so we can still process credit cards. • Jerry is looking into better ways of disposing of refrigerators. 3. OLD BUSINESS: Solid Waste Disposal Fees • • Presented the new fee schedule at the Board meeting this week. No public comments were being taken. The Public Hearing will be Nov. 12. Written comments are due by November 8. The Board will review the draft and decide how to proceed. • The PDN and Leader articles on the fee changes had the annual increase incorrect, because the amendment language in the ordinance seems to be confusing. There will be a 2.5% annual increase that is not related to the consumer price index (CPI), unlike the current code language for other county fees. 2014 SWAC Program Richard distributed copies of the 2014 SWAC Program. Richard will notify SWAC members of the topics well in advance, with materials and time to give feedback. 4. NEW BUSINESS: Jefferson County Splid Waste Management Plan • 2008 Management Plan Revision should be updated every five years. • Discussions during the year may lead to amendments. o There are amendments the County can make without going through a formal review process. o Changing the way we handle finances can be done with a simplified process of amendments through Ecology o If we change the vision or goals, or if we change disposal method, develop new facilities on the site, we have to go through a more significant review process • Need goals for education o Example: Someone who composts and has little garbage needs could complain about the cost. They need to understand that recycling isn’t free; hazardous waste disposal isn’t free, even though they don’t have to pay for those services. • Waste reduction is a recommendation in the comprehensive plan • Discuss ways we can improve our operations o Examples: 1) Having a satellite MRW program in Quilcene. 2) Al is having preliminary discussions with Skookum about recycling at the Port. • Long term capital budgeting • Glance through the four page list in the executive summary which has recommendations and focus on the things we should be trying to achieve • Other items SWAC members would like to discuss SWAC Minutes: October 24, 2013 Page 5 of 5 5. FROM THE FLOOR: Lisa asked a question about funding which prompted the following discussion: • Solid Waste uses an enterprise fund • Every ton that is disposed raises a certain amount of revenue and has offsetting costs. In addition to tipping fees, refrigerators and business disposal of moderate risk waste bring in revenues. Yard waste has its own fee. • As time goes on, more and more waste is being charged specifically for that particular item • At some point, we may have to pay to recycle, but that would have an incentive because it would cost less than paying for garbage. Example from Commissioner Austin: • Minneapolis and St. Paul are neighboring cities. • Minneapolis uses the general fund, has an income tax. Snow removal, police and Sheriff’s offices, and garbage pickup are paid by the City. • In St. Paul, snow removal and garbage service needs to be contracted by the residents. • In some communities, Police and the Sheriff’s office are enterprise funds, with funding raised by giving out tickets. Aaron Lawfield from Republic Services introduced himself and offered to come to a SWAC meeting and talk about their facility and to get to know the SWAC group better. • The Roosevelt landfill in Roosevelt, WA employs 150 – 170 folks to help turn disposed materials into energy. 0 materials are processed, look at actual balers and at different pieces of equipment, virtually turning them inside out and upside down. Jerry commented that the Roosevelt landfill is a state-of-the-art facility, a modern, engineered, lined landfill that is collecting its leachate and putting it back into the garbage in a controlled manner to maximize its methane production. There is still a lot of toxicity in the general waste stream, such as lead in imports, porcelain and polymers, children’s toys. Al expressed thanks to Richard and his staff for helping the Port. A boat owner said there might be a small leak in one of his keel coolers. The Port had booms and a barrel on site. When the boat was lifted out of the water, if fell apart, causing an oil spill. Richard’s staff was able to provide the Port with equipment to assist in cleaning up the oil spill. 6. NEXT MEETING DATE: January 23, 2014 7. ADJOURNMENT: 4:25 PM