Waste Not! Carroll

Carroll-Frederick incinerator plan brings unlikely allies together against it

Posted: Sunday, July 18, 2010 

By Adam Bednar, Times Staff Writer

Toward the end of his presentation last month about the cost of building a waste-to-energy incinerator, Bruce Holstein brought out two large pieces of poster board that listed the "winners" and "losers" if the project is built.

Holstein, a former Republican who joined the Constitution Party after former President George W. Bush attempted to pass immigration reform, smiled at the crowd as he brought out the poster board.

"I feel like Glenn Beck," Holstein said, referring to the conservative radio and television host.

Holding the poster board for Holstein was Don West, a candidate for the Carroll County Democratic Central Committee, who earlier had been trying to interest people at the meeting in buying Waste Not! Carroll T-shirts with selling points such as the shirts are made from organic cotton and colored with a soy-based dye.

Politics make for strange bedfellows, and the fight over whether Carroll should partner with Frederick County to build an incinerator has created its share of odd allies.

The various objections to the project, from environmental concerns to small government issues, make it the kind of project that draws people of different ideals together, West said.

"It doesn't matter whether I'm a liberal, a conservative or a right-wing nut. We all have a common issue on the incinerator," Holstein said.

Odd alliances

According to Richard Vatz, a professor of political rhetoric at Towson University, odd alliances form when a hierarchy of values is unclear.

"There are many issues like this, but almost never when the value hierarchy is clear: universal health care is opposed by the right as it is seen as ‘socialistic,' wherein the left sees it as a matter of compassion and collectivism," Vatz wrote in an e-mail.

"Same with soak-the-rich policies: conservatives think they undermine individual initiative and capitalism, while liberals think it people should not be allowed to make as much as their talents dictate," he wrote.

The fact that a coalition with such disparate political views has organized to oppose the incinerator came as a surprise, West said. When he began to organize opposition to the incinerator, he said he had no set plan to bring liberals and conservatives together.

The seeds for broader political opposition were formed last fall when West attended a screening of the movie "Not Evil Just Wrong." The film is a conservative response to the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

The movie was well-attended by area conservatives, and the conversations West had that night laid the ground work for him to address some local conservative groups about the incinerator proposal.

"It was a little risky, to say the least. But I made the decision that I was going to get nowhere just talking to people that agreed with me. I thought it was going to be important to try to talk to some people that didn't necessarily agree with me," he said.

Now the opposition has grown, and many of the candidates running for county commissioner this fall, no matter what their political affiliation, say they oppose building the incinerator.

Support and opposition

Opposition to the project has coalesced around two major points of contention: the environmental impact and the project's cost.

The environment tends to be the driving concerns for the project's more liberal opponents, while concerns about taxpayer money tend to irk opponents on the right, although those concerns aren't mutually exclusive politically.

Opponents of the incinerator and several environmental groups insist the ash generated by burning is toxic. They claim the ash contains such chemicals as dioxin, which scientists believe can contribute to infertility.

Some are still skeptical that "scrubbing" technology has advanced to the point that an incinerator won't emit toxic fumes.

Proponents of waste-to-energy incinerators insist the ash isn't a danger to humans and that incinerator technology has progressed enough that its emissions aren't a concern.

The other part of the opposition to the incinerator is the project's cost.

Opponents say there is too much uncertainty about what the actual project's long-term costs are and that residents will wind up paying more for trash disposal.

Residents against the incinerator say the county's $240 million share of the project's costs is too exorbitant.

The project's defenders, some members of the current Carroll County Board of Commissioners and county staff, argue the project will save the county money compared to continuing to haul trash out of state. Its supporters also argue that Carroll must find some way to handle the increased trash that will be generated by a growing population.

Those fighting the county insist that there are other options, including co-composting and methods such as a pay-as-you-throw policy that would increase recycling, as better ways to cut down on trash generated in the county.

Despite opposition growing across the political spectrum, one of the largest challenges facing residents fighting the incinerator will be whether they can hold the coalition together as they search for solutions to the problem.

Both Holstein and West expressed confidence the group of residents opposing the incinerator will be able to hold together despite political differences. But considering whether the group will even have a shot to push for alternatives to the incinerator is putting the cart before the horse.

The first goal for incinerator opponents will be to elect county commissioner candidates who oppose the project.

Reach staff writer Adam Bednar at 410-751-5908 or adam.bednar@carrollcountytimes.com.