Waste Not! Carroll

I believe The Gazette is correct in stating that the issue of the incinerator is bubbling. In fact for many of us it is boiling over ("Incinerator is not perfect, but it is reasonable," The Gazette, Oct. 1).

This project has been described by at least two of the Frederick commissioners who voted for it as "the best of a poor lot," and many of us believe that is not an appropriate path to take when the stakes are so high from both a fiscal and environmental perspective.

$2 billion in debt service and operating costs excluding major overhauls and millions in kickbacks from Wheelabrator to the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority (courtesy of the taxpayers), and after paying out this huge sum, what will taxpayers own? Nothing, absolutely nothing, as the facility will be owned by the authority.

The authority and one of the commissioners indicate we will "save" $629 million by eliminating the current method of hauling our waste out of state, but I wonder why no one is talking about the fact that anywhere from 15 percent to 30 percent of what is burned will remain after incineration, and will need to be trucked to a landfill somewhere, and the rest of what is burned will go up the smokestack to be inhaled by those downwind while we spend that $2 billion to save $629 million.

The Gazette, in defining the cost as $108 per year per citizen or "less than a pizza per month," uses an unfair portrayal, in my opinion. Instead, let's say that in an average household of four, the cost will approximate $450 a year, and that is a lot of pizza.

As for other options, the county recently expanded pickup and put in place a terrific single-stream program and as stated in an accompanying article of the paper (same date) we have achieved 41.39 percent recycling with a hope (but much doubt expressed by the county solid waste director) of achieving 45 percent, and face the impossible task of reaching 60 percent by 2025.

What might be better to discuss is what percentage of the households in the county are serviced with pickup every two weeks and how we can expand the coverage to achieve and surpass the objective. This is the time for positive thinking and a "just do it" attitude.

If it can be mandated to the citizens of the county that there must by an incinerator, why not a mandatory recycling program? And why is it that county offices have not been mandated to participate? One of the commissioners who voted for the project let on to a group of us at a recent meeting that "it was very difficult to get the county Board of Education to participate, and they are just now coming on line."

If true, this is absurd and attitudes and personnel need to change.

The Gazette, on May 14, 2009, stated "the best option would be to expand the Reich's Ford Road landfill, but any expansion must be accompanied by a renewed effort to increase recycling and composting beyond what is being done."

I have to tell you that many of us endorse what The Gazette said then and feel even stronger about it as incinerator cost and environmental issues have come to the fore. Together, let's find the will to achieve what The Gazette so aptly stated just over a year ago.

Gary J. Thuro, Frederick