Remedies Sought for State’s Trash
By Mark Reynolds, The Providence Journal, R.I.
Jan. 11–JOHNSTON — The State Planning Council is looking for some good input on a big problem: Rhode Island’s trash and how to deal with it in the years ahead, especially after the state’s Central Landfill reaches capacity.
Some people want garbage incinerated in the future, something that’s illegal at the moment. Others want more emphasis on recycling. Shipping trash out of state is a major consideration, too. Preventing the creation and disposal of the stuff in the first place is another idea.
Planning officials heard a full gamut of proposals — and a good number of complaints about the state’s landfill last night — when they held a public hearing at Johnston High School, just a short distance from the place where Rhode Islanders toss out 99.2 percent of their trash.
The council was in town for input on a long-term waste-management plan, which calls for a redoubling of recycling and waste prevention efforts across the state. It also allows for several landfill expansions aimed at keeping the facility in operation for another 25 years, if possible. Currently, it is estimated that the landfill will reach its capacity in 2011, without new permits.
State law requires the landfill’s overseer, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, to keep its operations within the scope of the planning council’s long-term plan, known as the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan.
So a small chorus of critics were on hand to voice concerns last night.
There were various Johnston politicians worried about landfill odors and representatives of organizations such as Clean Water Action and the Audubon Society, and Greg Gerritt — a member of the Green Party — who said that oil prices will make it far too expensive to haul all of the state’s trash to one location in the future.
“I think the whole economy is going to change,” said Gerritt. “We’re going to have to make and use much less stuff in the world.”
Matt Bagger, of Johnston, a university professor, said he envisions a trash pile taller than anything else in the state, including the new tower under construction at the Westin hotel in downtown Providence. With the proposed expansions, the pile of trash at the landfill could reach a height of about 700 feet, according to state planners. It now stands 578 feet high.
“There’s something about the monumental size of this trash pile … ,” Bagger said, adding, “It seems to be time for the legislature to consider incineration.” But that wouldn’t sit well with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.
Burning the state’s trash would have too many “extreme, adverse financial and environmental impacts,” according to the society’s senior policy director, Eugenia Marks.
Marks prefers an option mentioned in the draft waste-management plan: discouraging the creation and disposal of trash, particularly commercially generated trash, by raising the fees at the dump.
The head of the planning council, Kevin Flynn, and other planners are interested in raising fees and lightening the load of trash brought to the landfill each year. About 1.2 million tons arrived at the landfill in 2005, the plan says.
One consequence of cutting down on trash intake involves the fees that feed state government and help finance Resource Recovery and waste-prevention programs.
Tipping fees of $55 a ton for commercial waste and $32 a ton for municipal/residential waste helped generate more than $68 million in revenue in 2005, according to the report. Since 1995, Resource Recovery has transferred more than $43 million to the state’s general fund.
Landfill revenues also go to the Town of Johnston, where officials, including Mayor Joseph M. Polisena, say they want a larger piece of the pie.
But last night, two local politicians, state Sen. Christopher Maselli and Rep. Steven R. Ucci put a greater focus on landfill odors, urging planning officials to hold back on allowing any expansion of the landfill’s operations until Resource Recovery deals with the issue.
The draft waste plan calls for an expansion that would increase the trash pile’s footprint by about 100 acres, according to Flynn.
“We’re going to do what we can to start to slow this because I can’t tolerate the odor anymore,” Ucci said.
The council will accept written comments on its draft plan until 4 p.m. tomorrow.
Flynn said it will probably vote on the plan next month or in March, depending on how many comments are submitted for review.
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