WOOD DIVERSION PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TEAM MINUTES
December 16, 1999
ATTENDANCE RECORD
Project Development Team Members Present
Trish Spaine
Audrey Stockton
Kurt Mackes
Matt Gallegos/Mark Glorioso
Ross Hilker
Jim Disney
Susie Gordon
Doug Ryan
Mick Mercer
Chuck Lightburn
Jerry Chura
Project Development Team Members Absent
Eric Levine
Dennis Lamm
Kimberly Stenberg
Phil Friedman
Staff
Janelle Henderson, Director of Natural Resources
Steve Harem, Solid Waste Environmental Specialist
Scott Doyle, Hazardous Waste Manager
Kathryn Rowe, Facilitator
Ralph Jacobs, Facilitator
Kathryn Rowe called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Kathryn welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked each participant to introduce him or herself and affiliation, if any.
Janelle Henderson gave a brief overview of Larimer County’s solid waste management system and the issues it faces. Janelle noted that the current landfill only has five or so years of permitted capacity left. For the past two and a half years, two citizen groups have been evaluating what to do when the landfill runs out of space.
The Solid Waste Task Force made four recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners in 1999:
1. Proceed with a vertical expansion of the existing landfill
2. Investigate purchasing land that could be used for solid waste management activities in the future
3. Continue to evaluate associated solid waste issues, such as privatization of services, waste minimization, and alternate funding mechanisms for solid waste programs
4. Recommend to the Open Lands Board that any property being considered for purchase in the Loveland – Fort Collins area also be evaluated for use as a future solid waste management site.
Janelle reported that the Solid Waste Advisory Group (SWAG), which continued the work outlined in the Task Force’s recommendation number 3, would be presenting its findings in to the Board of County Commissioners in January. The SWAG would recommend that:
1. The Board proceed with the Solid Waste Task Force’s recommendations
2. Study the possibility of creating a mandatory "environmental fee" to be paid by all county households and businesses, or property owners, to fund waste diversion and environmental protection programs
3. Evaluate the costs and viability of expanding the County’s recycling program
4. Develop a long-range waste management plan to be used as the future guiding document by planners, citizens, and decision-makers.
Janelle said that the Project Development Team had been assembled to evaluate three or four potential waste diversion proposals, the first being a wood waste diversion opportunity. She reported that Holnam had approached Larimer County about burning wood wastes from the landfill as an alternate fuel last fall. Evaluating the feasibility of pursuing this option would be the Team’s first project. The group would later look at construction and demolition debris reclamation and a proposed tire recycling project. Janelle stated that the Team’s mission was to assist staff in evaluating each proposal, including identifying various potential benefits and concerns. The Team could be a "fluid" group with members coming and going as interests dictated. The evaluation process was projected to take three to four months.
Jim Disney noted that everyone in the room was interested in perhaps just one piece of the project and stressed the need for the group to have a "big picture" understanding of the problem being addressed. Jim felt the mission of the Team was to develop this understanding and come up with a viable solution or solutions. He expressed his looking at biomass burning (using crops or crop residues as alternate fuels) in conjunction with the wood-burning project as a means of supporting local agricultural interests.
Jerry Chura, production superintendent for Holnam, gave a brief presentation about the cement-making process and how wood wastes would be used as an alternate fuel. There was a brief discussion about Holnam’s interest in also using glass, drywall, and concrete from the landfill in their manufacturing process.
Kathryn Rowe and Ralph Jacobs led the group in a brainstorming session to identify potential benefits and concerns related to the wood-burning proposal. The following were noted:
Benefits
- More uses for glass, drywall, concrete
- Potential benefit to agriculture
- Employment
- Corn/grain as a fuel source
- Open up consideration of a much wider range of fuel sources, for example forest wastes, which could positively impact forest health and public safety
- Land owner sales
- Less coal loads (trains)
- Extended landfill life
- Potential reduced cost
- Less greenhouse gas (methane, carbon dioxide)
- Renewable resource use – forest wood supply
- Reduction in fugitive emissions
- Reduction of truck traffic at landfill
- Use of an underutilized wood resource
- Reduction of slash burning pollution – reduce fire hazards
Concerns
- Particulate emissions, odors (air quality)
- Traffic volume
- Delivery points, staging, sorting
- Handling costs
- Economics of diversion
- Importation of wood problem
- Will there be a consistent supply of wood
- Other productive uses of lumber for reuse and other jobs in the community
- What are the experiences of other plants
- Quality control in sorting construction wood products
- Will it be necessary to build new roads in forests
- Forest health – burning vs. decomposition on-site
- Timeline
- EPA review
- Test burns/ emissions trials – clearly state what will be burned – alleviate fears
- Permitting process
- Impact of storing wood
- Legal compliance
- Concern about becoming incineration plant
- Concern about misinformation about hazardous waste issue seven years ago
- Concern about burning Holnam plant elsewhere "burning dirty diapers"
- Rumor management
- Emissions reports access/ community access to information
- What else would be burned in addition to wood – check permits
After the brainstorming exercise, the Team formed committees to study four major issues. The committees and their members included:
Air Quality
Doug Ryan, Bill Sansing, Scott Marsh, Lucinda Smith, Steve Harem
Fuel Source Issues
Kurt Mackes, Chuck Lightburn, Gordon Benton, Steve Harem, Bob Nielsen, Phil Friedman, Janelle Henderson
Transportation Issues
Jim Disney, Mark Glorioso, Kurt Mackes, Scott Doyle
Staging/ Processing Issues
Scott Doyle, Trish Spaine, Art Gallegos, Chuck Lightburn, Mick Mercer, Bob Nielsen, Janelle Henderson
Janelle Henderson committed to scheduling committee meetings after the first of the year. The Team agreed to meet again as a whole in February for committee updates.
Janelle also committed to setting up a webpage on the County’s website (www.co.larimer.co.us) where information could be posted and accessed by Team members and the general public.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m.