Waste Not! Carroll

Advice should be unbiased

Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 1:00 am

By Patrice Gallagher | 

I am responding to an April 20 letter from Robin Davidov, "Waste-to-energy a positive project."

I grew up in Carroll, and have lived in Frederick for 20 years, and I'm weary of Davidov's waste-to-energy cheerleading in our counties.

She's touted in industry circles for promoting incineration to the public, but as Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority director, she is supposed to give us unbiased advice regarding our waste. However, only one professional study of disposal options was conducted for Frederick, comparing waste-to-energy to long hauling our trash, period. We need a professional study including commercial recycling, reusing/repurposing construction and demolition debris, commercially composting our food waste, etc.

Davidov travels globally, speaking as an expert on public persuasion. In Australia last month she was billed as: "... an accomplished speaker and a frequent panel member, Robin has an extensive understanding of the public acceptance criteria for WTE facilities and the methods best used to engage communities."

For the 2010 Annual NAWTEC conference in Orlando: "Building Bridges, Burning Trash." In 2007 at the NAWTEC conference, her talk, "Improving Public Acceptance of Waste-to-Energy," was described as: "... communities are once again seriously considering WTE ... However, convincing the public that the industry meets the most stringent guidelines for protecting public health and the environment are ongoing challenges. Join this panel discussion as we discuss the messages and tactics we can collectively use ..."

Davidov should stop using her famous "tactics" here, and provide a plan that won't lock us in to 40 years of inflexible technology, ultimately costing our counties well over a billion dollars.

Patrice Gallagher

Frederick