The County of Franklin Solid Waste Management Authority expects to hear next month if a proposal that would bring up to an additional 100,000 tons of garbage annually to the county landfill will be accepted.
The authority board voted in October to submit a proposal to the Capital District Solid Waste Management Partnership to accept the trash that is currently being deposited in the partnership’s Rapp Road landfill in Albany. The Albany landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2023, and officials there are trying to decide what to do with the trash generated by the city and 13 surrounding municipalities.
The city of Albany, acting on behalf of the partnership, in August issued a request for proposals for the construction of a transfer station at the Rapp Road landfill that would begin accepting the partnership’s trash in 2020. The successful proposal will be selected in early January.
The Solid Waste Management Authority’s Tim Carter said Albany officials are considering four proposals — including Franklin County’s. The county proposal is the only one from a municipal waste operation; the other three were submitted by private waste disposal companies, Carter said.
If the county is successful, the contract could generate from $1.5 million to $4 million in annual revenues, according to Carter.
The Franklin County facility last year opened a new cell for trash and has bonded for the construction of two more, which is expected to allow the landfill — which was built in the mid-1990s — to continue to accept roughly 80,000 tons of trash per year for the next 30 years.
The landfill’s four original cells reached capacity last year.
However, Solid Waste Authority Executive Director George Eades noted that the facility is permitted for a total of 20 cells, which would give the landfill a usable life of roughly 100 years at the current level of use.
Adding Albany County’s trash to the mix would still enable the 1,200-acre landfill to operate for the next 50 years, Eades said.
The existing and permitted cells would take up only about 250 acres of the site. Even allowing for a buffer zone around the facility, the site has plenty of capacity to add to the number of cells that can be used for waste disposal, Eades said.
There are only approximately two dozen permitted landfills currently operating in New York state, and that number is expected to decrease over the coming years as older facilities, such as the Rapp Road site, reach capacity.
Solid Waste Authority member Andrea Dumas, who cast the lone vote against submitting the proposal to Albany, said she voted no on the plan because she had not had time to study it. Authority members were presented with the idea shortly before being asked to vote, and Dumas said she wanted more information on how the proposal would affect Franklin County residents before she could back it.
To read the full story, visit http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news05/franklin-county-solid-waste-authority-submits-proposal-to-take-in-albany-countys-trash-20171218.