AG 1993 03 15 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Issue: Background: Current Situation: Recommendation: To decide whether or not Cabarrus County will continue to operate a sanitary landfill. Because of Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Cabarrus County must meet stringent guidelines if the county intends to operate a landfill beyond October 9, 1993. Specifically, if the county operates a landfill beyond October 9, 1993, the county must conduct extensive post-closure activities (includ- ing maintenance of final cover, groundwater and methane gas monitoring, leachate management) for 30 years following closure. If the county's landfill stops receiving waste by October 9, 1993, the landfill is exempt from all requirements exceDt, for the application of a final cover. Cabarrus County operates a sanitary landfill on a 200+ acre site off Irish Potato Road. The landfill has about 8-10 year capacity remaining. However, Subtitle D requires that all solid waste must be disposed of in a lined landfill by January, 1998. Therefore, the last date we can operate at this site is January 1, 1998 (unless there is a lined expansion}. BFI has proposed to accept all of Cabarrus County's waste for a time period beginning January 1, 1992, and ending December 31, 2002. The proposal includes the provision that the county retain all tipping fees from residential Cabarrus customers and 20 percent of the tipping fees derived from commercial Cabarrus customers. If there is capacity in the existing BFI landfill beyond December 31, 200~, the County would be allowed to continue its use of the BFI landfill until all air space is used up. The Board of Health has voted to recommend that the County reject the BFI offer and remain in the landfill business. If the Board of Commissioners choose to remain in the landfill business we need to make some decisions fairly guickly. Some of these decisions are as follows: (1) Initiate process of beginning to prepare to bring the existing landfill into compliance with Subtitle D, including . . . closure plan, post-closure plan, waste screening process. (2) Initiate the process of siting an expansion to the existing landfill or new site . . . Board of Commis- sioners need to authorize Board of Health to make a recommendation on expansion or locating a new site. Timeframe is immediate due to drop dead date of January 1, 1998. (3) Initiate discussions with adjoining counties (regionalization) to achieve more cost-effectiveness/ economies of scale - will continue search for new site during this process. Low tonage received doesn't achieve economics of scale. (4) Remain open to further offers from BFI while in in this process if they are better, present them to Board of Health for consideration. If the Board of County Commissioners choose to accept the BFI offer, we need to begin the closure process of landfill immediately.