A publication of Work On Waste USA, Inc., 82 Judson, Canton, NY 13617 315-379-9200 Dec. 1993 - Jan. 1994
The 9th of our 24-part series continues our review of waste-to-energy MSW incinerators, including references to Waste Not issues. Vendor/Operator from GAA’s 1993 edition. Type: M=Mass Burn; R=RDF. Tons-Per-Day is incinerator design capacity. APC = Air Pollution Controls: 1-ESP. 2-Baghouse. 3-Dry Scrubber. 4-NOx Control. 5-Wet Scrubber.
INCINERATOR V = VENDOR Year TONS-PER-DAY
LOCATION O = OPERATOR Type APC On-Line 1988 1991 1993
FL Pasco Co.25 V/O: OGDEN MARTIN M 2,3 1991 - 1050 1050
Pinellas Co.26 V/O: WHEELABRATOR M 1 1983 3150 3150 3150
Tampa27 V/O: WHEELABRATOR M 1 1985 1000 1000 1000
GA - Savannah28 V/O: Katy-Seghers M 1 1987 500 500 500
HI - Honolulu29 V/O: OGDEN MARTIN R 1,3 1990 - 2160 2160
ID - Cassia County30 V: CONSUMAT M None 1980 50 50 -
IL - Chicago31 V: N.A. O: City M 1 1970 1600 1600 1600
IN - Indianapolis32 V/O: OGDEN MARTIN M 2,3 1988 2362 2362 2362
25. Pasco County, Florida. Camp, Dresser, McKee Inc. did feasibility study & recommended construction of facility. The county’s population is approx. 201,000. Ogden is allowed to burn 3% of 1,050 tpd of chipped tires, while the county, who owns the incinerator, is responsible for the tire-chipping process. Ash is stacked like a ‘mountain’ on-site. In 1992 there was a proposal to build a large ash recycling plant. Because of citizen opposition, the county put the proposal on hold for 5-years. The ash landfill is 1/2 mile from the incinerator. There are cattle grazing within 1/2 miles of incinerator; within 1 mile is a lake where people fish; within 2 miles are 2 schools. In August 1992, Donna Slattery (see below) worked hard to stop the ash recycle plant, and as result, she believes, had her telephone and TV wires cut, a bullet hole next to her front window, and the locks on her doors jammed. The Sheriff’s Dept. told her: “If something happens again, call us.” On July 6, 1993 County Commissioners were informed: “1. Solid Waste tonnages have not increased annually as projected...when the facility was designed. The economic growth in Pasco County, since 1990 has caused a shortfall in tonnage which is needed to meet the monthly and semiannual debt services for the Ogden Martin operating agreement and bond obligations. (Annual shortfall - $1,333,000) 2. An increase in capital dollars is needed to design and construct the carbon injection system for mercury emissions which will be required by 1995 due to changes in the Florida Administrative Code rules for air emission standards. (Capital cost - $2,200,000) 3. An increase in capital dollars is needed to design and construct the evaporator/crystallizer unit which is required to remove sodium chloride from the landfill leachate. This project is needed at the earliest possible date. (Capital cost - $2 million) 4. Capital dollars are needed for design and construction of the second ash monofill cell which will have an expanded double liner system with a subbase and leachate detection system as required by the recently modified Florida Administrative Code Rule 17-701... ($2,300,000). 5. Capital money is needed to construct a Materials Recovery Facility if a contract cannot be negotiated with a private company to process the ‘blue bag’ recyclables...($1,200,000)... Total, $7,700,000. Excess bond funds available for capital projects, $4 million. Capital shortfall, $3,700,000.” Pasco County Interoffice Memorandum from Douglas S. Bramlett, Ass’t County Administrator (Utilities Services). According to a Sept 15, 1993, report in the Suncoast News: “Pasco County decided to take a little bit of a gamble on the future course of the bond market in order to avoid a proposed $6 increase in the county’s solid waste assessment. The County Commission voted 5-0 [Sept 14] to approve a bond swap arrangement...the bond swap will give the county more money up front it needs to operate the county’s solid waste system, which centers around the resource recovery facility...[necessary] because initial estimates of how much garbage would be available for burning in the plant...were too optimistic. Officials will use the breather provided by the bond-swap deal to sign agreements with other area governments to take garbage from them to raise the tonnage burned...thereby increasing the revenue it earns...” Solid waste fee won’t rise in 1994, front page. For more information Donna Slattery, 8441 Long Boat Lane, Hudson, FL 34667. Tel: 813-862-7756, after 6pm. See also WN# 105.
26. Pinellas County, Florida. The county owns the incinerator and “expects retrofitting its 3,000 ton-a-day burner to comply with air standards will cost anywhere from $100 million to $200 million, including lost electricity revenue and disposal fees while the plant is down.”- Wall Street Journal, August 11, 1993, Fading Garbage Crisis Leaves Incinerators Competing for Trash, front page. According to a June 25, 1989, article in the Orlando Sentinel: “...a DER [Dept. of Environmental Regulation] official said tests on one of three incinerators in the Pinellas unit -which is burning a total of 2,427 tons of refuse daily- emits 6,598 pounds of mercury each year.” In 1984 over $8 million was spent on repairs for the incinerator. According to a January 11, 1985, report in the St. Petersburg Times: “A free offer by a California air-quality agency to determine whether toxic substances are escaping from the [incinerator] has been turned down by Pinellas officials. California officials asked permission last year to conduct a $100,000 study to identify emissions from the county’s garbage-burning plant...So California offered to test Pinellas’ plant, one of the first of its kind in the United States, and to share the information with the county. Pinellas officials said no...Bill Ferguson, the plant manager, said that if California tested the plant’s emissions over a brief time, the results might be exaggerated by a temporary jolt of pollutants. ‘You can get a load of garbage that might be all plastic and you’re going to high chlorine readings,’ he said...”--County rejects offer of free air-quality test at garbage plant, pg 16B. For more information contact Sue Rice, 5899 97th Circle North, Pinellas Park, FL 34666. Tel: 813-545-5378. See WN # 11,73,105.
27. Tampa, Florida. The original vendor for Wheelabrator’s 1,000 tpd mass-burn incinerator in Tampa was Waste Management Energy Systems. According to GAA’s 1993 edition*: “Have had problem with capacity requirement; however, up to 77% from 70% (lower limit according to agreement with utility). City feels that vendor [Wheelabrator] is not paying enough attention to maintenance; not their usual technology (original owner: Waste Management [Energy Systems]). City claims drop in capacity was due to frequent breakdowns & unscheduled outages. Planning to install roof over ash processing facility.” Ref GAA 1993, p 300*. According to INFORM’s review of incinerator test emission results, this incinerator ranked second highest for mercury emissions and 3rd highest in Lead emissions out of 9 incinerators they had data on, and was ranked the highest for the “Amount of Water Used per gallons/day. Ref: Burning Garbage in the US, Practice vs. State of the Art, authors: Clarke, deKadt, Saphire, published in 1991 by INFORM, Inc., 381 Park Avenue South, NY, NY 10016-8806, Tel: 212-689-4040. For more information contact Mary Woodhouse at 407-743-7847. See also WN# 75,105.
28. Savannah, Georgia. When the Georgia legislature was considering a mandatory 25% recycling rate for Georgia, officials from Savannah lobbied against it because they needed the trash for their incinerator. Smith Barney was Senior Financial Manager. For more information contact Carol Williams, Eco Action, (an excellent bi-weekly newsletter for grassroots activists in Georgia), 250 Tenth Street, NE, Suite 201, Atlanta, GA 30309. Tel: 404-873-2474.
29. Honolulu, Hawaii. Colin Jones, the Energy Recovery Administrator for the city of Honolulu, told us the incinerator accepts treated medical waste. The City owns the incinerator, sold it to Ford Motor Credit Corp., and leases the plant from Ford, while Ford is the 3rd party tax owner. That deal went through in November 1989 (one month after the incinerator went on-line), arranged through Goldman Sachs. The partnership that developed the project was Amfac Energy and Combustion Engineering. Amfac, according to Jones, is a major corporation in Hawaii. When ABB bought bought out C-E in 1990 they also bought out Amfac’s share in the partnership. When ABB decided to get out of the MSW incinerator industry they sold out to Ogden Martin, which took effect January 1993. The sale-leaseback was arranged because the City of Honolulu found the debt repayments too high & Ford found the tax benefits attractive. Roy F. Weston were the consultants to the City. See WN# 95.
30. Cassia County, Idaho. Permanently shutdown in Dec. 1991. “Plant dismantled...Needed to replace inefficient equipment, i.e. boiler tubes. Project no longer cost efficient.” Ref GAA 1993, pp 601-602*.
31. Chicago, Illinois. Owned and operated by the city and designed by Metcalf & Eddy. The incinerator supplies steam to the Brach Candy Company. The Environmental Defense Fund and Chicago-based Citizens for a Better Environment used the Chicago incinerator in its litigation attempts to have municipal solid waste incinerator ash regulated as a hazardous waste. The suit is now under consideration at the U.S. Supreme Court. For more information contact Citizens for a Better Environment, 407 S. Dearborn Street, Rm. 1775, Chicago, IL 60605. Tel: 312-939-1530. See also WN #s 6,173,223.
INDIANA;
GAA’s 1991* edition listed a 150 tpd “RDF, Pelletized” operation in Muncie, owned and operated by Muncie Paper Products. This is not an incinerator. This facility went on-line n Sept 1990 and was permanently shutdown in April 1992. “Plant shutdown; no market for RDF.” Ref GAA 1993, pp 605-606*.
32. Indianapolis, Indiana. See WN # 209 for the report where Ogden Martin was cited by the EPA for 6,000 permit violations, which included: by-passing pollution controls -scrubber & baghouse - 18 to 20 times. Ogden’s incinerator had 27 boiler tube failures within one year. See also WN# 225 for the $350,000 fine that Ogden Martin “agreed to pay” the State for violating its air pollution permits. In March 1993 Ogden’s incinerator burned asbestos waste. According to the Indiana Dept of Environmental Management (IDEM): “Incineration of asbestos-containing waste is a violation of disposal conditions...This disposal involves unacceptable methods of handling asbestos in general and there may be violations of the Office of Air Management rules as well.” Ref: May 24, 1993, IDEM Office Memorandum to John Hale from Robert Snodgrass. Subject: Improper Disposal of Special Waste. On January 13, 1994, Waste Not called the Ogden’s plant manager, Walt Tucker, to ask if Ogden accepts medical wastes at the incinerator. Mr. Tucker’s secretary referred me to Tom Mitchell, the plant’s community relations manger, who when asked about medical waste referred me to Karen Alexander at Ogden’s New Jersey’s office. When the question was put to Karen, she said she would get back to us. For more information contact Jeff Stant or Charlene Griffin at the Hoosier Environmental Council, 1002 E. Washington, Indianapolis, IN 46202. Tel: 317-685-8800.
*1993-1994 Resource Recovery Yearbook, Directory & Guide, by Eileen Berenyi, Ph.D. and Robert N. Gould, 718 pages, published by Governmental Advisory Associates, Inc. (a private consulting/research group), 177 East 87th Street, NY,NY 10128.