Dayhoff Westminster

Dayhoff Westminster
www.kevindayhoff.city Address: PO Box 124, Westminster MD 21158 410-259-6403 kevindayhoff@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Enviro Solid Waste Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enviro Solid Waste Man. Show all posts

Friday, June 5, 2015

Carroll County Md Shredding and hazardous materials event slated for June 6, 2015

Carroll County Md Shredding and hazardous materials event slated for June 6, 2015 http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2015/06/carroll-county-md-shredding-and.html

According to a press release from Maria Myers, Recycling Manager Carroll County Department of Public Works, Bureau of Solid Waste, Carroll County has scheduled a time when Carroll County citizens may have personal documents shred and dispose of household hazardous waste.

The event is scheduled for June 6, 2015 from 8 a.m. until 12 noon.

May 21, 2015 – A Household Hazardous Waste Spring Cleanup and Shredding Event is being sponsored by the Carroll County Government Recycling Operations.

The event will take place on Saturday, June 6th at the Carroll County Vehicle Maintenance Facility, 1250 Meadow Branch Road, Westminster (Off Md. Rte. 97, north of Westminster, past Meadow Branch Road to Old Meadow Branch Road.)

Carroll County residents can drop off dangerous household items from 8 a.m. until 12 noon and shred sensitive documents from 8 a.m. until 12 noon or until truck is full, whichever comes first.

Items ACCEPTED at the household hazardous waste drop-off area include: gasoline or gas/oil mix, kerosene, oil-based paints and thinners, solvents, stains, sealants, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, photographic and pool chemicals, household cleaners, compact fluorescent light bulbs, fluorescent light tubes, nickel-cadmium and NIMH batteries.

Items NOT ACCEPTED include: latex paint (dispose this with household trash after adding an absorbent agent such as cat litter, sand, mulch or shredded paper.)

Medications (unused and expired medications can be taken to the following police stations: Westminster, Taneytown, Sykesville, N.E. Greenmount; they do not accept syringes.)

Rechargeable batteries, household batteries, explosives, ammunition, fireworks, medical and biohazard waste, radioactive material, compressed gas tanks and cylinders, asbestos, items from commercial and industrial businesses or farms, vehicle batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, (vehicle batteries, motor oil and antifreeze accepted year round at Northern Landfill Recycling Center, 1400 Baltimore Boulevard, Westminster; Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.)

Shredding is Residential only; no businesses. Items ACCEPTED include: invoices, bank statements, personal records, lease balance sheets, audit reports, credit reports, checks, medical reports.

For details, call Carroll County Government Recycling Operations at 410-386-2035 or the Northern Landfill at 410-386-4550. Maria Myers, Recycling Manager Carroll County Department of Public Works, Bureau of Solid Waste

410-386-2035 www.recyclecarroll.org
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My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Monday, October 17, 2011

Westminster Common Council Members Frazier and Whitson weigh-in on incinerator and airport expansion

Westminster Common Council Members Frazier and Whitson weigh-in on incinerator and airport expansion

October 17, 2011

As a citizens of Westminster, we have wondered why some elected officials of Westminster haven’t publicly weighed in on issues that would have a large impact on Westminster.  Now that we are elected Councilmen. we would like to let our views be known on two issues that we believe will impact Westminster.  Here are our observations and concerns.

The first is the “waste to energy” incinerator that the county is currently thinking about building with Fredrick County. We are against it for several reasons:

The first of which is the cost to run it. There is a waste to energy incinerator in Montgomery County and every family in the county is charged a fee of several hundred dollars a year to keep it running. Do we need another fee in Carroll?

The incinerator also needs tremendous amounts of trash to keep it running, and needs the paper, cardboard and plastic that is and can be recycled to keep the operating temperatures high enough to run efficiently.  That means that the paper cardboard and plastic that is currently being recycled in Carroll will be burned and not reused.

This is a linear system and we live in nature, which is a cyclical system. A linear system takes, makes, and wastes. It takes things from the resource base and makes whatever we want to buy and creates wastes along the way. Ultimately what is made is also thrown away and in this case it will be burned. We should try to treat our resources like nature in a close looped system. We need to reuse the paper, cardboard, plastic and other “trash” instead of burning it. 

There are technologies in place that make this a more cost effective solution as well which have been recently shared with us at Council meetings. 

One final note that should put an exclamation point on our reasoning is that the incinerator in Harrisburg is the main reason for the city going bankrupt recently!!

The other issue that we are against that is also being looked at is the airport expansion. I have not seen, read or heard of any way that the airport expansion will benefit the people of Westminster or Carroll County.  If it will not somehow positively impact the welfare of the people than why spend the taxpayers money on it. 

The present airport is continuously operating at a loss  with no reason to think it will start to make a profit.  The present debt is 5 million dollars and counting!

The Federal government wants to invest 73 million in it and make it bigger, but after that we will be in charge of the upkeep, which will cost us more money as well.

Marada,  which was one of the main reasons for the expansion, is out of business!

Businesses are less likely to come to Maryland in general due to the heavy tax burden and our lower taxed neighbors.

If we accept Federal  money,  they will give us more mandates in what is required for the airport and have control, as opposed to local control, and we know how much money the Federal gov’t has right now.  – 14 trillion and counting.  Don’t think Carroll County is high on their priority list.

There are also environmental  concerns relating to fuel being dropped on local fields/noise/ as well as homes/land that people have lived on their whole lives that would have to be condemned and forced to move elsewhere in these difficult times.

There is no reason that a county government should be running an airport in the first place.  Governments are not good at being businesses and shouldn’t try to be businesses. 

4 of the 5 Commmisioners ran on a platform that they were opposed to the airport expansion and they should keep their word!

If a business were running an airport it would be more efficient.  In fact, we would be making money as a county if they turned a profit because the private company would be paying taxes.  Since the county runs the airport there is no tax revenue coming in from the airport! When the county loses money, due to the airport losing money, We the People of Carroll County lose!

Dennis Frazier and Paul Whitson ( 410 916 3645 )

Admin Letters to KevinDayhoffNet, Letters to the Editor qv Admin Letters, People Frazier Dennis, People Whitson-Todd, Enviro Solid Waste Man, Enviro Solid Waste to Energy, Carroll Co Regional Airport, Incinerator qv Enviro




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My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Soundtrack Op-ed: “Waste Not! – Carroll” speaks out on MGA incinerator legislation



Soundtrack Op-ed: Don West, co-founder of “Waste Not! – Carroll” speaks out on Maryland General Assembly incinerator legislation

February 14, 2010
Editor,

On Saturday, February 13, 2010, the Carroll County Times Opinion Page gave Senate Bill 228 a “thumbs down”. The bill, sponsored by Senator Alex Mooney, R – District 3 (Frederick and Washington Counties), prohibits the Maryland Department of the Environment from issuing a permit for the construction of an incinerator unless certain conditions are met.

Included in those conditions are that the incinerator is located in an area zoned for heavy industrial activity and that the site is at least 3 miles from a church, school, park, hospital or residential dwelling.

The CC Times asserts that Mooney was disingenuous in offering the legislation. Yet, Senator Mooney states he has received thousands of e-mails from his constituents in opposition to the Waste to Energy (WTE) incinerator that is proposed in his district. Rather than disingenuous, I view his legislation as an example of a senator responding to the needs and desires of those he serves.

The same column accuses Mooney of political posturing in an election year. That charge is easy enough to refute – Senator Mooney introduced a similar bill in last year’s legislative session. Last year was not an election year for County Commissioners in either Frederick or Carroll Counties.

Speaking of politicizing the issue, our own Commissioner Michael Zimmer ventured to Annapolis to testify against the same bill last week. He said he wants to make sure that Carroll County has an opportunity to reap the same benefits of WTE incineration as Baltimore City and Montgomery and Harford County. After examining this issue in some detail, I’m wondering what benefits Commissioner Zimmer has in mind?

Perhaps it’s all the money to be spent? With current projected construction costs upwards of $600,000,000, plus the financing and the anticipated operating expenses for the life span of the incinerator, we are facing a total cost to taxpayers in Carroll and Frederick in excess of 2 billion dollars!

Given current budgetary problems, I don’t see how anyone would view an expenditure of this magnitude a ‘benefit’. If you are interested in how bad it can get, look to Harrisburg, PA, where the city is nearly bankrupt following a botched upgrade to their incinerator.

Another ‘benefit’ of WTE incineration that proponents like to cite is the electrical energy the facility will generate. What they don’t say is that the incinerator is in reality a poor source of power, generating only about 1/10 of the electricity of a typical electrical plant. Also, any power generated goes first to the operation of the facility. Then Frederick County, as majority partner, gets second priority for the power.

Finally, Carroll County can get what’s left, providing we pay for it. That’s right, we will pay for the electricity generated by burning the trash that we pay to have burned in the incinerator that we are paying for! At the Dickerson facility in Montgomery County, financial records show that money from the sale of electricity doesn’t even offset service on the bonds issued for the initial construction of that incinerator; operating costs are borne by the residents and taxpayers.

In fact, if you compare the energy saved by recycling or composting waste destined for the incinerator versus the energy provided from its combustion, incineration is an enormous Waste of Energy!

Proponents of the incinerator would like you to think that with an incinerator burning our trash, we will no longer need landfills. This is false. First of all, as much as 20 – 25% of our solid waste can’t be burned. Most yard waste and construction & demolition refuse are two examples - other disposal methods will need to be used.

Plus the residual ash from the incinerator will need to be dealt with. Some propose that using the ash as a daily cover at the landfill is appealing. Montgomery County, however, pays to haul its ash to Virginia, where it is handled as a hazardous waste, at an additional cost of several million dollars per year. I’m not seeing any great benefit there, either.

Finally, proponents like to say that emissions from the Waste to Energy incinerator will be closely monitored. Carroll and Frederick’s agreement allows for the monitoring of 12 regulated emissions. Unfortunately, a recent report from the MDE for the Harford County incinerator identified nearly 200 toxins released! If that’s the level of monitoring we can expect at our proposed incinerator, I don’t think I would want my family to live 30 miles from such a facility.

An editorial in the CCT’s the following day accuses Senator Mooney of a “Not In My Backyard” motivation for proposing his legislation. Superficially, I can see where that could be argued, except that the adoption of his bill would mean that nobody in Maryland would have an incinerator within 3 miles of their home, school or church.

Perhaps it’s more accurately portrayed as NIABY, “ Not In Anybody’s Backyard”. For that, Mooney’s attempt at regulating future incinerator locations should be applauded, not ridiculed.

Some may view Senator Mooney’s legislation as an intrusion of state government into a local issue. However, when our local elected officials ignore the views of their constituents, and more importantly, the facts and ramifications of their decisions, seeking the assistance of another level of our government is our right and obligation.

Don H. West
Westminster

The writer is a co-founder of Waste Not! - Carroll
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Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/