The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility was honored recently with the Grand Prize in Excellence in Environmental Engineering from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. Art Balmer, chief of the Division of Solid Waste Services for Montgomery County, accepted the award during a luncheon on April 16 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Recognized for having "minimized environmental impacts while annually processing more than 430,000 tons of solid waste," the facility received this top award in the category of Operation/Management. The award-winning facility is owned by the Authority on behalf of Montgomery County, and operated by Ogden Martin Systems.

"It is gratifying to receive such a prestigious award acknowledging the environmental excellence of the facility," said Robert Merryman, deputy director of the County's Department of Public Works and Transportation. "The staff of the Division of Solid Waste Services and Ogden, our contractor, have worked long and hard to make this an outstanding facility. This recognition culminates a journey over the past ten years."

The facility, located in Dickerson, Maryland, employs a unique combination of effective pollution prevention strategies that include creating electricity for sale, recovering approximately 1,000 tons of ferrous from its waste stream per month, and employing advanced air emissions control technologies. Among these advanced technologies are furnace lime injection and a semi-dry spray absorber for the control of acid gases, carbon injection mercury control, ammonia injection to control nitrogen oxides and removal of particulates by using a reverse-air fabric filter. The Montgomery County facility is the only one in the nation that operates with all of these emission control devices in place. Its emission levels have consistently remained well below the stringent limits of the facility's operating permit. In addition, the facility is the first and only waste-to-energy plant in the nation to transport all waste deliveries and ash removal by rail. This reduces daily traffic, vehicle emissions and noise in its rural setting.

The facility began receiving waste in 1995 and is designed to accept up to 1,800 tons of waste per day. Comprehensive analyses of the ambient air, water, soil, vegetables, milk and fish in the surrounding area have shown no detectable differences in ambient environmental conditions. "Waste-to-energy facilities are among the cleanest power plants in the world," said Robin Davidov, executive director of the Authority. We have proven this to be true in the first three years of this facility's operation." For more information, please contact Chris Skaggs at (410) 333-2730 or visit http://www.dpwt.com.

From left to right: Jim Reynolds, Chris Skaggs, Robin Davidov, Art Balmer, Roy Simpson, Brad Crispell and Dr. Ramana Rao at the awards luncheon sponsored by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

For more information regarding up-coming events, contact your local county recycling division.

This summer you may be surprised to see cartoon characters on your television screen belting out "R-E-C-Y-C-L-E" in tune to a popular Aretha Franklin song. As part of a $75,000 recycling advertisement campaign, the Authority has arranged for three recycling advertisements to be aired on local television channels in July and August. The goal of the campaign is to increase residential participation rates in existing curbside recycling programs and to educate the public about the benefits of recycling and composting. Two of the spots are animated and feature the "recycle guys," characters that remind viewers to recycle, to purchase goods made from recycled materials, and to buy in bulk when possible. The third spot explains the idea of composting and points out the benefits of composting yard debris and grass clippings in your backyard.

All three spots originally were produced by other agencies. The animated spots were produced by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control's Recycling Division. The Authority was able to secure a license for unlimited use in the State of Maryland. The composting spot was produced by Howard County and stars John O'Hara, chief of the County's Bureau of Waste Management. The assistance provided by these agencies has resulted in significant cost savings and has forged partnerships with other organizations that have similar recycling goals and objectives. For more information or to arrange for the use of the spots in Maryland, contact JoAnn Strack of the Authority at (410) 333-2730.

EPA has issued its final "Policy for Municipality and Municipal Solid Waste CERCLA Settlements at NPL Co-Disposal Sites" in an effort to minimize multiparty litigation at Superfund landfill sites. The policy provides a settlement framework for resolving potential Superfund liability of generators and transporters of MSW and municipal sewage sludge, and municipal owners and operators at co-disposal landfills on the National Priorities List (NPL). Under the new policy, EPA will not change its practice of generally not including generators and transporters of MSW as potentially responsible parties at NPL sites. Nevertheless, MSW generators and transporters are often sued by other parties involved in Superfund cost recovery cases. To reduce such litigation, MSW generators and transporters may resolve their liability to EPA by paying $5.30 for each ton of MSW that they are estimated to have contributed to the Superfund site. For municipal owners/operators or co-disposal facilities, the policy establishes a presumptive baseline settlement amount that will allow owners/operators to resolve their liability by paying 20 percent of the total estimated response costs. Provisions in the policy allow EPA regions to increase this percentage to 35 percent, and decrease the percentage if the municipality made efforts to mitigate environmental harm. Services such as mowing and other maintenance may be considered as partial settlement of a municipal owner/operator's cost share. EPA will consider claims of limited ability to pay and will be developing guidelines for further assessment with respect to this issue. EPA does not intend to reopen settlements under the new policy, nor does it have any effect on existing unilateral administrative orders. For more information, contact Roger Truitt of Piper & Marbury, L.L.P. at (410) 576-2380 or rtruitt@pipermar.com.

Source: with permission from P&M Environment Watch, April 1998, Vol. 1, No. 2 Wm. Roger Truitt, Esquire.