Negotiations for the BRESCO retrofit project were successfully concluded with the approval of the restated contract documents in early December 1998. Participants in the negotiations were the Authority, Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Wheelabrator. Both the City’s Board of Estimates and the Baltimore County Council voted to approve the arrangements. At the same time the city approved a settlement agreement, which dismissed pending legal action brought against the Authority by Wheelabrator. All of the parties worked hard to come to agreement on many issues. As a result, costly and time-consuming litigation was avoided and the Baltimore Region’s air quality will be greatly improved.

“The negotiations took far longer than anyone expected. However, in the end, the perseverance and professionalism of the negotiating team members lead to an agreement that benefits all parties,” said Robin Davidov, executive director of the Authority.

On December 10, 1998 the Authority sold $40 million in BBB rated tax exempt bonds. The average interest rate was 5 percent.

Negotiating team members for the Authority, Baltimore City and Baltimore County were:

Representing BRESCO and Wheelabrator were:

The negotiation team support staff also contributed greatly to the process. Special thanks goes to the Authority’s administrative staff members Shirl Wright and Soncie Johnson.

The Baltimore City Composting Partnership recently announced that in fiscal year 1998 (November 1, 1997 - October 31, 1998) the facility sustained its market strength for the second year in a row, while continually selling out of compost. In FY 1998, the facility processed an average of 180 tons per day of sewage sludge from Baltimore City’s Back River Sewage Treatment Plant and sold 85,000 cubic yards of finished compost. Although the facility processed less material in FY 1998 compared to the previous year, revenue generated from the sale of compost increased 19 percent.

1998 marked the facility’s eleventh year of operation and service to the Authority, the City of Baltimore and Baltimore County. It is operated and managed by Professional Services Group, Inc. (PSG). The composting process utilizes raw materials that are otherwise considered “waste” products, including sewage sludge (biosolids), ground pallet wood, sawdust from lumber mills and ash from energy plants, to create a beneficial soil amendment. The finished end product is sold in bulk under the trade names Eckology in Maryland, BioCom in Virginia and ORGRO in New York. PSG’s marketing program has been successful because the company has developed strategic alliances with key distributors and fine- tuned operations to meet peak market demands.

PSG took over business operations, facility management and marketing in late 1994 and implemented a product and process improvement program in 1996. The company also took on large maintenance projects that have successfully reduced plant downtime. As a result, PSG can ensure consistent compost production and reliable biosolids disposal service to the City of Baltimore and Baltimore County.

Robin Davidov has been selected to serve on the 1999-2000 Editorial Board of Solid Waste Technologies magazine. The publication serves a wide array of solid waste professionals from line workers to CEO’s and covers a broad spectrum of issues related to the solid waste industry. It also provides information on solid waste products, applications, services and new technologies. Solid Waste Technologies is published bi-monthly with a circulation of more than 36,000 subscribers.

SWANA’s Gold Excellence Award Presented in October

The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility has received the 1998 Gold Excellence Award in the category of waste-to-energy from the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). Located in Dickerson, Maryland, the award-winning facility is owned by the Authority on behalf of Montgomery County and is operated by Ogden Martin Systems. The facility was recognized for its successful municipal solid waste management programs. James Reynolds, project director for Montgomery County and Brad Crispell, facility business manager for Ogden Martin accepted the award from SWANA’s William Merry, at the association’s 1998 WASTECON/ISWA World Congress (36^th Annual International Solid Waste Exposition) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Montgomery County facility has received three prestigious awards in the last year. In addition to this latest award, the facility received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Project Award from the National Capital Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Excellence in Environmental Engineering for Operations/ Management Grand Prize Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Cliff Dowling has been selected to fill a contractual position as Recycling Specialist for the Baltimore County/ Harford County Commercial Recycling Project. This project is funded by a grant from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded to the Maryland Department of the Environment. The Authority is providing contractual services for the one-year project.

The goal of the project is to divert commercially generated recyclable materials from disposal to recycling facilities. Mr. Dowling has begun the project by studying waste loads brought to the Harford County waste-to-energy plant and Baltimore County’s Eastern Landfill. He has identified more than forty businesses to be targeted for recycling educational outreach and will develop a database to track his efforts. Future work will include developing a waste audit to help companies identify recyclables that can be removed from the waste stream, which will likely lead to a reduction of solid waste disposal costs.

Mr. Dowling brings a wealth of recycling experience to the project. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Conservation of Natural Resources from UCLA at Berkeley. Most recently, he served as the Recycling Market Development Specialist for the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Recycling Services Division. In that position, Mr. Dowling was instrumental in developing a statewide recycling businesses database. He worked closely with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and other economic development offices to stimulate the promotion of market development programs for recyclable materials.

The deregulation of the electric industry continues to bring about changes as buyers and sellers of electricity create competitive markets. The schedule of introducing competition began in December 1997 when the Maryland Public Service Commission ordered that all Maryland customers be allowed to choose their own energy suppliers beginning in July 2000. Power companies such as PEPCO are in the midst of creating new arrangements with generators that will allow them to sell electricity to other utilities and consumers at competitive rates.

Montgomery County is already reaping economic benefits as a result of restructuring in the electric industry. In an agreement that took effect January 1, the Authority has committed to making an additional 18 megawatts of electrical capacity from the Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility available to PEPCO. This one year agreement with PEPCO will earn up to $400,000 in additional revenue for the county. Along with a previous capacity sales agreement for 32 megawatts executed this past summer (WasteWatch, Fall 1998), this agreement will push the RRF’s total electric revenues to $6 million for calendar year 1999, an increase of nearly 20 percent.

The Authority’s one-year agreement with PEPCO will earn up to $400,000 in additional revenue

The RRF generates an average of 26 to 28 megawatts of electricity per hour, but has the capacity to provide an additional 18 megawatts for short periods of time if needed. This can be accomplished without increasing the amount of waste brought to the RRF.

The Authority approached PEPCO with the concept of a partnership to sell this energy to other utilities. The RRF’s additional 18 megawatts of capacity will be offered on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) grid system. The Authority tracks PJM rates through an Internet connection. PEPCO will reimburse the Authority for a fixed amount of operation and maintenance costs when the RRF is called to produce additional energy. For additional information, please contact Chris Skaggs at the Authority.

Company Has Constructed What May be World’s Largest Trash Can!

Baltimore City Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Baltimore City Department of Public Works Director George Balog were on hand in October to help BRESCO celebrate its annual Garbageman Appreciation Day. The yearly event is held at the BRESCO facility in downtown Baltimore. It is designed to recognize garbage haulers for the vital service they provide to the community.

“If there’s one public servant we take for granted perhaps more than any other, it’s our garbageman,” said BRESCO plant manager Steve Tomczewski. “In rain or snow, whether the temperature is 100 degrees or 10 degrees below, these people are on the job every day making sure our refuse is removed and safely disposed of. The October 22 celebration was Wheelabrator’s way of saying thank you for the great service they perform.”

Representatives from Baltimore City and Baltimore County joined BRESCO staff in greeting garbage haulers, passing out commemorative hats and serving hamburgers, hot dogs, cake and soda. As part of the festivities, BRESCO constructed what might be the world’s largest garbage can. The galvanized steel trash can, complete with a lid and two handles, sits in front of the facility. It was constructed by BRESCO employees. Measuring 18 feet high by 12 feet in diameter, the trash can has a capacity of nearly 15,300 gallons — 170 times larger than the standard 90-gallon can. BRESCO has requested that the London based Guinness Publication of World Records declare it the largest trash can in the world. Guinness is currently researching the request.

Since opening in 1985, the BRESCO recycling and waste-to-energy facility has successfully recycled more than ten million tons of refuse from the Baltimore area into 3.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 12 billion pounds of steam — enough to provide heating for 500 downtown office buildings. In addition, the facility has contributed more than 290 million pounds of ferrous metal to the area’s scrap metal markets. BRESCO is one of sixteen recycling and waste-to-energy facilities operated by Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc.

December 1 marked the opening day for solid waste transfer operations at Carroll County’s new 22,000 square feet transfer station. The transfer station was built by Carroll County and will be operated by Waste Management. More than half of the building space — 12,000 square feet — will be used for transferring 100,000 tons per year of the county’s solid waste. The waste will be shipped from the transfer station to the York County waste-to-energy plant in Pennsylvania for disposal. From there, metals are separated from the ash and the ash by-product is processed into road aggregate at the American Ash Recovery Facility, which is also located in York.

Partners, Inc., is working with the county to complete the remaining portion of the transfer station, which will be a material recovery facility for the 10,000 tons of recyclables collected annually from the county’s curbside collection program. Material recovery operations are scheduled to commence in February.

Carroll County’s new transfer station has a total of 22,000 square feet. More than half of the space will be used for transferring solid waste. The remaining square footage will be used to house a materials recovery facility.

Following the Current of Electric De-regulation

by Robin Davidov

The Ballroom was packed at the general session on “Electric Restructuring in Maryland… The Implications.” Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan was the moderator of a three speaker panel lead off by Glenn Ivey, chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC). Mr. Ivey noted that while the PSC has the legal authority to restructure the electric industry, it prefers a legislative approach. Senator Barbara Hoffman then presented the legislative perspective. She said that while legislators would rather not change the present system, the state is being forced to move with the current. She noted that Maryland’s tax system is ill-suited for competition because only regulated companies can be taxed by the state. If nothing is done, the state and local subdivisions would loose all tax revenues from the electric industry. And these revenues are substantial, $72 million in gross receipts taxes paid to the state and more than $200 million in property taxes paid to local subdivisions. In addition, Ms. Hoffman’s colleagues are trying to decide whether self-generators should be taxed, and if not, how will the state be able to discern between a real self-generator and a self-generator wanna-be?

Stranded costs are the loathsome words in electric restructuring. Ms. Hoffman defined these as “investments made by utilities under a regulated system that are not recoverable under a de-regulated system.” That means everything from office furniture to nuclear power plants. Ms. Hoffman suggested that since power plants are being sold at more than book value, there might not be a stranded cost problem in Maryland. Apparently, the Maryland utilities do not share Ms. Hoffman’s optimistic view, as they have filed some $9 billion in stranded costs claims.

Mr. Duncan cited an anecdotal example of a utility that recovered $400 million in stranded costs from rate payers and then sold the assets for $2 billion.

Charles County Commissioner Murray Levy, interim president of MACO, presented the view of local subdivisions. He noted that the state is solving its revenue problem but the counties are not solving theirs. “Twelve counties will be hammered badly,” he said. MACO has hired a consultant to determine if the Maryland utilities have a legitimate concern about their tax burden. Calvert County, for example, had accepted the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant with the understanding that the county would be the beneficiary of tax revenues generated by the plant.

During the discussion period, Mr. Ivey noted that energy intensive manufacturers would move out-of-state if electricity costs were too high in Maryland. He also noted that local governments, historically large consumers of energy, could fare well after de-regulation. For example, some nonprofit groups and Montgomery County have begun to aggregate their power purchases.

Robin Davidov is Executive Director of the Authority

A report on solid waste management in Maryland has been released by the Governor’s Solid Waste Management Task Force. The task force was established by executive order in March 1998 to examine the trend toward increased interstate transport of solid waste. Task force members studied citing issues, interstate transportation, permitting and other solid waste policy issues. The report contains a number of findings and recommendations.

The task force consisted of representatives from the Maryland Association of Counties, the Maryland Municipal League, private industry, citizens, the Maryland Environmental Service, the Maryland General Assembly and the state’s congressional delegation. Robin Davidov, executive director of the Authority and Dan Williams, Calvert County, represented the Maryland subdivisions. Four public meetings were held throughout the state to solicit comments on the draft recommendations.

The report can be found on the Maryland Department of the Environment’s website (http://www.mde.state.md.us). For more information, contact Robin Davidov at the Authority.

February 26, 1999 SWANA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Seminar:  Preparing for 2000 — Just Another Year? at the Holiday Inn, Annapolis. Registration deadline February 19. For more information, contact Damian Vanetti at (301) 805-5629.

Wastewatch is published quarterly by the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, an independent agency of the State of Maryland governed by its Member jurisdictions — Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, Howard County and Montgomery County.