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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12.7.23 Staff ReportJEFFERSON COUNTY, WA SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE DECEMBER 7, 2023 STAFF REPORT Staffing We continue to borrow Operators and Laborers from the Roads division and from the City of Port Townsend in order to maintain normal operating hours. A new agreement with the Teamsters Union should provide more competitive wages needed to attract and retain skilled employees. Solid Waste Education Public Works applied for funding in the amount of $60K through the Department of Ecology’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Education grant to offset the cost of the solid waste education program. We were surprised to learn that we would receive no funding and we have requested a list of those projects or programs that did receive funding so that we can learn why we were not successful. We suspect that Ecology’s focus remains on improving recycling programs following on the unfunded Contamination Reduction and Outreach Plan mandate, whereas our focus is on rescuing and redirecting food to our residents who are food insecure. We will move forward with only minor revisions to the workplan that was submitted in the grant application and fund the program with revenue from the tipping fee. Transfer Station Improvement Justin Miskell, the Operations Coordinator, successfully managed the launch of new scale software for solid waste transactions at both the Transfer Station and the Quilcene Rural Drop Box. This required all new hardware (servers, credit card readers, printers, monitors) and new connections to new PUD- provided fiber and to the scales themselves. It required the creation of +20 different transaction types in the new software including a brand-new Low-Income Discount both in a weight-based and volume- based arrangement since the Quilcene site doesn’t have scales, followed by multiple rounds of testing and fine tuning. All this had to be coordinated between the software provider, the scale manufacturer, PUD, County IT, and the Public Works Finance team while still operating the facilities. We closed to self- haul customers on October 31 and November 1 for final installation and testing while still processing the commercial loads from Waste Connections and “crash” trained staff on the new software in real time. On November 2nd we opened to the public again and processed 380 transactions at the transfer station alone – a record for a November day – which translates to a transaction every 1.18 minutes. Despite the complexity of the scale software implementation, a very “green” crew and with more than ½ of the staff out on FMLA leave, and a single day of training, every one of the 380 transactions was perfect, the tills were correct to the penny, and no one waited in line for more than 30 minutes. Moderate Risk Waste Program Four Household Hazardous Waste collection events were held throughout 2023 and while we’re waiting for the final event’s material types and weights from the contractor, it looks like we’ll be close to the same amount of material collected annually through the now-closed Moderate Risk Waste Facility in the Boathaven. We have received far more positive feedback on the new service than complaints about the facility closure and in particular, customers at the Quilcene event were very happy that the service was more convenient. An informal survey of Quilcene event customers showed that customers had come from Gardiner, Discovery Bay, Port Hadlock, and several from Port Ludlow. The 2024 schedule of events is below with the same 10 am – 2 pm time frame and same material types and quantity limits as in 2023. March 3: Port Hadlock Roads Shop April 6: Jefferson Transit Park and Ride (Port Townsend) September 7: Quilcene Roads Shop September 21: Port Hadlock Roads Shop Transfer Station Replacement Planning Process A Scope of Work with a new Prime Consultant, Perteet, Inc., has been negotiated and staff will send a contract to the Board of County Commissioners shortly for their approval. Perteet is an infrastructure consulting firm with much experience in siting public facilities and was a subconsultant under the initial consultant, Vikek Environmental Engineers. They will be bringing with them two other Vikek subconsultants; Penny Maybe for group facilitation and public outreach and Sarah Fischer for conceptual design. Staff is currently reviewing the 12 potential sites that made it through the initial siting criteria sieve and has added an additional 16 parcels for consideration. We will be narrowing that list down to the best 3 candidate sites and bringing these to the Solid Waste Facilities Task Force (SWFTF) for review and discussion. We anticipate 3 more meetings of the SWFTF with an open house in between 2 of the meetings to bring more public input to the SWFTF. We hope to be able to deliver a recommendation on siting and funding to the Board of County Commissioners by the end of next summer. Closed Landfill Monitoring Aspect Consulting will soon complete the last of 8 quarterly monitoring events which will fill any remaining data gaps and will then issue a final report and recommendation on the monitoring program in January, 2024. We are confident that we can demonstrate landfill stability and that monitoring activities can end after +30 years. The report and recommendation will be submitted to the Jefferson County Department of Health which will then forward with their recommendation to the Department of Ecology.