Herald & Lantern 22 February '84

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21

Consultants: Too Costly

x MU A Trashes Trash Plan

By E J. DUFFY SUNSET BEACH — Pollution control equipment at the Harbison-Walker magnesite plant is not suitable for waste-to-energy trash incineration, according to consultants for the county Municipal ' Utilities Authority. Lower Township and the MUA commissioned studies on the feasibility of a waste to-energy facility in the riumicipality with the focus on the 123-acre plant.that closed here in September Although MUA consultants agree with the township team that pollution scrubbers at the plant are in good shape, the consulting firms disagree on the cost of upgrading the devices to comply with state air quality standards. Township consultants Sanbom-Wielenga Associates reported in September that hardware necessary to convert the existing magnesite plant equipment for incineration would cost $1.2 million, including two 2S-ton-a-day incinerators and $310,000 for an electrostati(^precipitator. In its February report To the MUA, Sanders & Thomas Inc. concluded that the necessary pollution control equipment alone would cost $1.5 million. That figure was based on a 200-ton-a-day system, however, since the MUA was apparently interested in the cost of modifying the plant for a higher Volume operation. Nevertheless, shortly after the MUA hired Sanders & Thomas in December, MUA Executive Director George Marinakis said that the MUA was looking at the magnesite plant as one of several possible sites for incinerators. Given the minimum $1 million asking price for the Harbison-Walker property and disregarding the cost of converting it into an incinerator. Lower Committeeman Robert Fothergill argued that an auxiliary use there would be uneconomical. He wants the township to own and operate any waste-to-energy incinerator at HarbisonWalker. 1 MUA MEMBERS WERE expected tb review Sanders & Thomas’ report tonight. If that’s not bumped off the agenda by hearings on its indicted engineering firm and lawyer, the members are expected to 'concur with Fothergill that an MUA incinerator at the magnesite plant would, indeed, be too costly. Eventually, the MUA is just as likely to conclude that the township cAn’t operate an incinerator there either. That’s part of the message MUA officials intended to deliver at the township Incinerator Authority’s “educational” meeting last week. An MUA contingent also planned to summarize Sanders and Thomas’ report at the Valentine’s Day-

Township Solicitor Bruce Gorman invited the MUA to attend that meeting in a Feb. 7 letter to Marinakis. But the lawyer advised the director that participation from the MUA was not expected. "That’s why we decided not to go,” complained Theodore F. O’Neill, MUA solid waste manager. “We felt we should have the opportunity to participate. ’ ’ MUA staffers, he explained, thought about attending the public meeting and demanding their right to be heard, but decided against it. Quoting Gorman’s letter, “I emphasize that we expect no participation on your part,” O’Neill added: “We simply don’t want to go where we weren’t invited — even though we were ‘invited’.” Township Committee named its three members to the five-member Incinerator Authority when it was established at a Jan. 9 public hearing — over the objections of mayoralty candidate Samuel Stubbs and council candidate Debi de la Cretaz. STUBBS THREATENED then to ask Superior Court to block any authority action but he has not filed the request. De la Cretaz tried to consultant Sue Sanborn’s crfeefltiajs and the Sanborn-Wielenga reportSsUhe public hearing, but Fothergill told de la Cretaz that only questions about the authority formation would be answered then. The authority, be said, would tackle her questions and the whole issue of trash disposal during the educational meeting. Although Sanborn brought up the topic of her credentials during the session, when de la Cretaz tried to respond. Mayor Peggie Bieberbach, authority chairzhan interrupted.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the issue,” she said, cutting off debate.'* Questioned about her ruling after the meeting, the mayor said she was unaware Fothergili told de la Cretaz she could question Sanborn's credentials since she (Bieberbach) did not'attend the Jan. 9 public hearing when the Incinerator Authority was formed. Fothergill indirectly appologized to gPla Cretaz; she indirectly declined to accept it. Ironically, O’Neill sides somewhat with Bieberbach’s contention that Sanborn’s credentials have little to do with the incineration issue. He called that dispute and even the debate about the HarbisonWalker property “nonsense’’ that distracts the public from the meat of the trash disposal problem. "THE POINT IS. there are important regulatory, financial and environmental implications he iraisted, which the township apparently chooses to ignore. The MUA has been charged with responsibility for waste disposal in the county, be stressed. Even if the MUA permitted Lower to operate an incinerator, the MUA would control the facility, O’Neill said, and any revenue from users would go into MUA coffers not the township’s. Faced with an $11-million debt, the MUA could not permit the township to operate a competing waste disposal facility. The state Board of Public Utilities would not issue Lower a franchise to collect trash from other municipalities for Jhe same reason, be added. . • If an incinerator plant in Lower could offer tipping fees below those at the MUA landfill or transfer station, O'Neill continued, the incinerator plant fees would be increased so the landfill and transfer station fees could be decreased. That’s called “rate averaging,”, a method whereby all trash disposers wind up paying the same fees regardless of where they dump. “In the final analysis, the job of waste disposal in this county has already been assigned,” O’Neill declared. “The job is taken. I think, frankly, that they’re (Lower officials) wasting their time.” That’s what Stubbs told the authoritylast week but its audience of 35-40 people was mostly receptive to Sanborn and the other speakers. Most of the spectators applauded each presentation. A dozen Cape May Point residents left the meeting with a sour taste in their mouths, though, according to their mayor, Frank S. Rutherford

Jr.

“IT WAS A PROPAGANDA-type meeting more than an educational-type meeting,” he complained. “That’s the feeling that our (Point) people came away with. “They’re not against incineration; they’re against this location down there,” Rutherford said of the magnesite plant. Point residents put up with the plant for decades and were overjoyed when it finally closed last fall, he added. Aware that the MUA was invited to the authority meeting but asked not to participate, the mayor said: “That just adds to my opinion that it was a staged meeting with one objective in mind — incineration at the Harbison-Walker plant.” "... We've looked at a couple of sites,” Sanborn told the authority audience, “and I would stress here that a site analysis has not bqen done...” Land acquisition costs could be avoided and expenses possibly shared if an incinerator were built at the township’s MUA facility off Baysbore Road, she said of one of the two sites Sanbom-Wielenga reviewed. An incinerator there could be adapted to bum sludge and, perhaps, equipped to supply steam to the nearby township complex if its buildings' power s plants were converted. “WE ALSO LOOKED at the HarbisonWalker site,” Sanborn said, pointing out its potential for multiple uses on an artist’s rendering of the tract. “There’s a lot of possibilities for this site.” Asked the purchase price of the magnesite property, Sanborn replied, “That’s down the road yet.’'. “I guess we really don’t unde:stand ...,” said Point resident Florence Del Vecchio, weighing Sanborn’s response against a recent newspaper article which read in part: “Fothergill has been negotiating with Harbison Walker ...” about possible township ^^WtaetThe relras^Tsanbwm^elenga’s study to reporters in November, Fothergill conceded that his negotiations with

Harbison-Walker had thus far gone “nowhere.” Nevertheless, in her reply to Del Vecchio, Sanborn suggested that the newspaper accounts were faulty. She told Del Vecchio: "People tend to believe what they read in print.” Fottergill did not comment on Del Vecchios’ question or Sanborn’s response dur- ’ ing the Feb. 14 meeting. Afterward, Sanborn privately apologized for her remark about the press. . v During her presentation, she urged township residents to reconsider "garbage as a resource, garbage as a fuel “We can bum it and create energy. It’s a positive thing," she said “WE FELT THAT the best combination for Lower Township was this combination of recycling and energy recovery,” Sanborn added, noting that both can save taxpayers’ money by reducing tipping fees at disposal sites, through the §£ie of I'ecycled material, lower trar^portation costs etc. "We’re talking about burning waste, yes, but we’re not talking about the incineration of the past,”, she continued enthusiastically “We’re talking about a system that does not cause air pollution — does not contribute to water pollution.” Fothergill has said that two. potential customers are interested in buying steam from an incmerator plant fitted to supply it. One of those firms employs 300 workers, _ the other 20, be said, and both would have to relocate near the waste-to-energy facility. , A Just through thepr steam sales." Sanborn told theaudience, “you’ll find you can generate quite a bit of revalue. “We jtiave two interested steam users,” she said later. “But we are not in a position right how to divulge the names of our potential users.” "Resource recovery doesn’t have as good a reputation as people would like you to believe,” said Charles Harris, a consulting engineer for Delaware County, Pa. Citing several failed resource recovery’ operations, he added. “The key to any plant is a customer buying the steam. I guarantee you, if you've got a customer, you’ve got a successful project." "ALL I DO IS TALK about this project when I go home,” Harris continued. He said he has been working on it since Jan. 5. He called Sanbom-Wielenga's study "my

Bible.”

(Apparently Harris has been working without pay. Fothergill introduced* a resolution to hire the engineer for $50 an hour during township committee’s regular meeting last Wednesday but Fothergill voted for Bieberbach’s motion to table action until Committeeman Thomas Clydesdale returns from vacation.) j A number of jgrants would likely w available to the township.if it decided to finance a waste-to-energy incinerator, Harris told the authority’s Feb. 14 audience. But, if the operation were privately financed, he said, “We could have a facility in a year’s time.” Tom Ratza, vice president of marketing for Impact Management System* Inc. of Lion vide. Pa’., said his firm’s investors would be attracted to a waste-to-energy facility because of the tax credits. “So it becomes a really good project for private enterprise to get involved with you,” he told the spectators. Questioned by Gorman, Ratza said that, if his firm and the township agreed on some type of joint venture for a Waste-to-energy plant, his company would assume responsibility for acquiring the becessary site and required permits. “We’re at risk. We’re at risk for all of this," he added. "We assume the risk - financial, operational — the whole bit.” UNLESS THE TOWNSHIP solves its . trash disposal problem, warned Harry M. Scott, township auditor, next year’s bill for dumping at the county MUA’s Woodbine landfill could reach $600,000. That translates into a $50 local purpose tax hike for a homeowner whose property b assessed at $50,000. Scott also serves as auditor for Cape May Point. Its mayor regards the auditor as a competent -and straightforward analyst but disputes the figures Scott was given to work with by Lower officials. “They only have half the picture,” Rutherford argued, noting that wouldn't have to haul its trash to W< but only as far as the trash transfer stal in Burleigh, Middle Township. Disputing FottfrgUTs past contention that the cost of hauling Lower’s trash

directly.to Woodbine would be less expen sive than trucking H to the transfer station. Rutherford also maintained that Lower trash trucks would have a shorter trip from Villas to Burleigh than to an incinerator plant to Sunset Beach "They didn't say anything about the transfer station,’’ the Point Mayor observed 7 At its Feb-Ttrnreenng. township committee named four of the \ive members to township Solid Waste Advisory Council charged with investigating “alternative solutions for the disposal of solid waste.” Bieberbach announced THE COUNCIL MEMBERS will "work hand in hand with the Incinerator Authon ty and the Township Committee,” she said. Appointed were Joseph Davis of Villas, Stubbs’ opponent in last year's seat; Cass Clark of North Cape May. president of the Animal Welfare Society and a member with Davis in the Lower Township Republican Club; Bieberbach's Baysbore East neighbor. Dolores Hughes; and Joseph Lonergan of Bayshore West * “Can the county MUA squash all our plans?" asked Mary Ellen Daino of. the Lower Township Democratic Club, referring to the incinerator plan during the public hearing bn establishment of the advisory council "They (MUA officials) could just say ‘Forget it.’ ” she later added. “I think that if we’re shot down and we're told that we have to bring our trash . up there < to the Woodbine landfill), I would .be very happy to lead the first Cape May County revolt," Bieberbach said “Little Lower Township has come up with something that the county hadn’t thought of.” “You don’t think we'll have a problem with the county MUA then?" asked Daino. “I hope not," the mayor replied. “I really hope the MUA will work with us " “Technically, they own the trash,” Fothergill said of the MUA earlier "Our approach with them to date has been going to their meetings —.and I’ve attended three so far — basically with our hat in our hands. “If we have ouTcommunity behind us ... when we go to the county MUA,” Fothergill said, “they will have to listen to us." . “They’ve only been to one (MUA) board meeting,” O’Neill said of towirtiip of- * ficia's’ talks with the MUA about incineration. “At no time have they gone hat in hand.” While the meeting between MUA and township officials was “amicable.’’ O^Neill added. Lower did not present a firm proposal but a rather broad concept instead. “We don’t want to stifle that kind of enthusiasm for resource recovery because that's where we feel-the county should be beaded anyway,” he continued, but the township's prevalent attitude has been to “ignore the MUA." “They would rather sit back and throwrocks at us ...,” he said. “They’re going to spend money and time on their own independent solution when they should be coming here .. “We would be delighted to work with Lower Township ...” O’Neill concluded. "But ... they’re attempting to ignore the fact that we exist...”-

Raid Ends Drug Probe OCEAN CITY — City, state and countylawmen arrested nine adults and a juvenile (hiring a 14-hour drug raid here and in Upper Tdwnship Feb. 14 that ended a six-month investigaiton. Five other suspects woe arrested oq drugrelated charges in September. During the investigation, police spent $4,180 on 29 purchases of methamphetamine, LSD, cocaine and small quantities of marijuana.

O.C. Cops Take Two OCEAN CITY — Resort^BUce arrealed Michael-Owens, 24. of Ocean City, and XoRphTotenski, 24. of Mays Landing Thursday for the early morning holdup of the Linwood Arc© station, Marvin Avenue and Route 9, linwood. Police recovered $58 in cash allegedly stolen. Both men being held in Ueu of $20,000 bail on

theft and assault charges.