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AM Shook Up:

By Bill Knapp

Predicting natural disasters and other events that can shake up a solid waste disposal facility is impossible, but

advance planning can make all the difference.

en we witness the de- tracts with several disposal facilities. struction caused by a hur- Such contracts usually require the w ricane, flood, snowstorm, hauler to guarantee that a minimum

fire or earthquake, solid waste man- amount of material is sent to the fa- agers wonder how the debris will be cility daily or monthly, or charge a disposed. The collection of

eliminate the cushion of safety a large landfill represents.

Residents in housing develop- ments near landfills can call for pre- mature closure. Conservation of lo-

cal disposal capacity or debris is only the first step - then it has to be dis- posed in devastated facili- ties.

But natural disasters are not the only problems that can strike suddenly. In the early 1980s, Los Angeles County passed a rule bar- ring the city of b s Angeles from using a county land- fill. The announcement came on a Friday, and the city had to find a new dis- posal site by Monday. New York experienced similar problems that made na- tional news.

jurisdictional disputes be- tween political entities can bar access to facilities.

Conversely, attractive rates can bring an unex- pected influx of outside waste into local facilities, decreasing their lifespan. Massive plants can re- quire a political decree on exclusive waste flow that can bankrupt other facili- ties. Recycling and com- posting centers can rob waste-to-energy (WTE) plants of needed fuel, en- dangering contracts with energy customers. Unfore-

Because most cities COl- lect staggering amounts of waste - for instance, in Los Angeles, the public sector collects 5,500 tons per day and private haulers collect 1 1,000 tons per day - any kind of disaster increases waste, impedes waste col- lection, destroys disposal access and inundates disposal facilities.

Solid waste managers tend to hedge their bets by securing redun- dant disposal capabilities for emer- gency needs through signing con-

Disaster cleanup is an enormous undertaking that requires a coordinated effort.

seen- natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, fires, earthquakes or bliz- zards can destroy or pre-

maturely fill adequate facilities. Reg- ulatory changes can make disposal plants obsolete or too expensive to bring into compliance.

The uncertainty of supply requires disposal back-up planning, and that demand sometimes fuels the attempt to find a permanent supply, such as a W E facility. Unfortunately, ensur- ing the economic viability of one

penalty for each ton below that mini- mum, which diminishes the price for significant increases in the amount delivered. This method guarantees income and gives the hauler access to waste disposal.

Securing disposal capacity is good insurance for facilities facing an un- certain future. Sudden disaster can destroy years of disposal space and

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nomically viable. Otero and Lincoln Counties, with a pool of eight munic- ipalities, cooperated to solve this problem three years ago, when there were 12 dumps and a population of 60,000 people. Now there is one landfill and the new regulations are being met, including the financial assurances for closure, and disposal costs are kept at $13.90 per ton.

“So our equivalent of a great flood happened in 1989. It wasn’t a flood of water, but of regulations we had not been prepared for, and waste we had nowhere to go with,” Lewan- dowski said. “With cooperation from the private and public sectors, we rode it out and eventually reached higher ground. We have emerged wiser and better prepared.”

The Midwest Floods Cedar Rapids owns and operates a

160,000-tons-per-year landfill at a site along the Cedar River, where ap- proximately 75 percent of the city’s solid waste is landfilled. Despite sev- eral diversion efforts, landfill capaci- ty is critical.

In 1993, the solid waste system was sorely tested. A near-record flood crest in April cut off access to the landfill for the first time since 1969. July and August rains deliv- ered back-to-back record precipita- tion to Iowa. Floods are nothing new to Cedar Rapids, and the landfill it- self is not subject to direct flooding. But the devastating nature of indi- vidual rain-related events was dra- matic in some areas of the city.

Flash flooding of homes and busi- nesses caused property damage that resulted in 8,000 additional tons of waste destined for landfilling, ac- cording to Dave Hogan, solid waste program manager. The waste result- ed in an unscheduled loss of future capacity and the loss of income from that capacity. Because it was han- dled over a three-month period, additional costs were kept to a mini- mum, but the city experienced a rev- enue shortfall of $250,000.

In emergency situations, the city can use the much smaller Linn County Landfill, where flooding is

cover needs and extra traffic flow are relatively minor inconveniences.

Until 1993, the city felt it could handle most disasters. When flash flooding of the Des Moines water plant left 350,000 customers with- out potable water for 12 days, even President Clinton took notice. Then the Cedar Rapids water pollution control facility went down for three days when critical pumps failed due to flooding.

“Identifying the unexpected ca- lamity can be a revealing process. A n

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The Mississippi River crested at almost 23 feet in July 1993, leaving many Midwest communities awash in floating debris.

facility can destabilize and even drive alternative facilities out of bus- iness.

Yet putting all the eggs in a single basket may prove costly in a sudden disaster. An earthquake can put a WTE plant out of business in 20 sec- onds and create more solid waste to dispose of than ever before.

Twenty seconds can destroy a fa- cility that has carefully created waste disposal capacity over a num- ber of years. Whether it is a slow strangulation of a landfill ringed by housing developments, or one type of facility siphoning waste from a- nother and the economic decline of both, it takes much more effort, money and time to provide the facili- ties than to eradicate them. Planning for long-term disposal is a delicate balancing act.

How prepared is your community to handle potential disasters? Six managers who have planned for and coped with disastrous situations talked to World Wastes about their trials and triumphs.

Reguiation Compliance “In New Mexico, we don’t have the

floods, hurricanes, fires or earth- quakes that plague other regions of the country,” said Joe Lewandowski, the general manager of the Lincoln County Solid Waste Authority, Lin- coln County, N.M. “However, we do have our disasters - manmade ones, brought about not by what we did, but by what we didn’t do.”

Many catastrophes have occurred due to the failure to take action when needed or to not realizing the importance of a certain problem. Such was the case involving the preparation for the new New Mexico

solid waste regulations in 1989. The new regulations were a huge

change from the old ones. “Previous- ly, if you dug a hole, surrounded it with barbed wire, put in a cattle- guard and put up a sign saying no burning was allowed, you were in the landfill business,” said Lewan- dowski. The new rules required clay liners, groundwater monitoring, post-closure financial assurances and many other items that had nev- er been addressed before. Many counties had the community dumps that people had been using for dec- ades. Some counties had dumps lo- cated within a few miles of every community, no matter how small.

Landfill operators had a matter of weeks to calculate the costs of oper- ating or closure under the new regu- lations. The majority of landfills closed with little public notice. Piles of refuse appeared before closed gates, in front of dumpsters and in roadside ditches. Govemment agen- cies were running around trying to handle the problems and trying to figure out how to pay for a disaster that they had not anticipated or pre- pared for. Private haulers were dam- aged by huge increases in landfill dumping fees that came with little or no advance notice. No plan devised in either the public or private sector had prepared for paying for such changes. Landfills that had cost about $75,000 to open now would cost about $2 million to construct.

As with most disasters, good things also happened along the way. Govemment entities that would nev- er deal with each other before were now forced to do so. Landfills would have to be capable of handling larger amounts of material to remain eco-

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air of complacency, an ‘it- can’t-happen-here’ mode of thinking, rules until it does happen in your communi- ty,” said Hogan.

“In Iowa, we face two like- ly disaster scenarios aside from flooding - tornadoes and earthquakes. They both threaten the most valuable disposal asset, future ca- pacity, rather than the land- fill facility’s integrity itself. In a worst-case scenario, massive damage to large portions of the service area could instantly consume years’ worth of landfill space in just a few weeks. The rar- ity of such occurrences no longer impresses us.”

Rock Island County, Ill., landfilled approximately 1,000 tons of mixed waste after last year’s flood.

gogan now feels that making land- fill space available can no longer be left to chance. “Regulatory delays in providing for new, unplanned capac- ity provides unacceptable, unneces- sary risks. Planning needs to be long-range and account for land use, regulatory activities and financial planning. Adjustments of the imple- mentation timing should be the only variable in adequately providing for space,” he concluded.

In this spirit, Cedar Rapids and Linn County recently signed a 50-

year joint powers agreement to fully integrate all solid waste activities in the county. New landfill space is now being programmed using a 75-year horizon.

“Even though other disposal tech- nologies may be useful in managing solid waste, we see 1andfiUing as the cornerstone of our program and the provision of adequate space as the critical element in our plan,” said Hogan.

Flood waters from the Mississippi River ravaged Rock Island County

from mid-June to mid-July of 1993. Rural areas, small villages and large cities were equally affected. The river finally crested at al- most 23 feet, leaving an array of agricultural build- ings, private residences and commercial buildings par- tially or completely de- stroyed.

In Rock Island County, 507 structures required demolition due to damage __ from flooded basements, rooms or total submersion. Flood debris ranged from clothing and furniture to white goods, wood waste and household hazardous waste IHHW).

“Dealing with-the cieanup and dis- posal was uncharted territory for both the state and local govern- ments,’’ said Mark Mehall, solid waste coordinator. “No coordinated plan existed, on any level, to deal with a cleanup on such a massive scale.”

After a couple of weeks of assess- ment, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and the Illinois Department of Transporta- tion (IDOT) teamed up with various local agencies to provide a coordinat-

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ed cleanup effort. Rock Island County was used as the initial test area of this effort.

A one-acre tract of land owned by IDOT in the industrial park lo- cated in the city of Rock Island was designated as a collection area. A mobile shredder was rented at a special low rate from Shred-Pax Inc., Wood Dale, Ill., to shred the mixed munici- pal solid waste. IDOT employees collected, processed and trans- ported the waste.

Individual residents who had been affected

After a major disaster, white goods are collected in special areas for disposal.

by flood damage were also allowed to bring in their waste. Special areas were set up to collect any HHW and white goods. The IEPA provided han- dling and disposal oversight and hired a hazardous waste contractor to dispose of HHW and white goods in an environmentally safe manner.

The IEPA also granted a special dispensation from required regula- tions to make it easier for the re- maining waste to be landfilled. Ac- cording to Mike Nechteval of the IEPA, the fee charged per cubic yard

for municipal solid waste delivered to landfills was waived, which made it less costly for IDOT to pay for the disposal of the collected material.

Approximately 1,000 tons of mixed municipal waste were landfilled and 180 tons of household hazardous wastes and white goods were dis- posed properly as a result of this ef- fort. After proving itself in Rock Is- land County, the IEPA and IDOT moved the effort south into other lo- cations along the river.

As a result of the flood and subse-

quent cleanup efforts, IDOT and IEPA formed a cooperative effort for the first time. Numerous cleanup plans also were formulated by the state of Illinois to deal with flood debris damage in the future. The necessity for intergovernmental cooperation and tactical planning to deal with a disaster of this magni- tude was brought home in a very real manner.

Waste Inferno Amherst, N.Y., a town

of 112,000 people locat- ed near Buffalo, N.Y., generates about 58,000

tons of solid-waste annually and re- ceives so much snow that it might qualify as a disaster if it fell in an area unaccustomed to the amount.

Realizing that rising disposal costs were becoming a problem, the town created an advisory committee in 1989 to look into ways to cap or re- duce the increasing tipping fees, which resulted in the start of a man- datory curbside recycling program. Simultaneously, the town made plans to build a 40,000-cubic-yard compost facility to remove all green

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wastes from the waste stream.

In the first year of op- eration, 7,500 tons of re- cyclable material were collected and 2 1,500 tons of #een waste were composted, leaving only 30,000 tons to be dis- posed - and saving the town $540,000.

Amherst used a waste- to-energy facility in Nia- gara Falls as its prime disposal facility under a long-term, 25-year con- tract, with an initial five- year term and four addi- tional five-year renewal options. Realizing that

A mobile shredder is useful in the disaster cleanup process.

unforeseen events could threaten this disposal source, the contractor must provide a plan for alternate disposal capability if the facility is shut down or unable to provide ser- vice.

In 1993, a fire caused so much damage to the plant that it closed for six weeks. Two transfer stations in westem New York provided for alter- nate use during that period. The WTE facility has an agreement with landfills that take the waste when the facility is shut down for mainte- nance or other causes.

In New York, all communities are mandated to develop a comprehen- sive recycling analysis and a solid waste management plan designed to reduce solid waste generation. The plan is updated every five years to incorporate new information on mar- kets or mandates affecting the solid waste program.

“I feel that we have made progress since 1988 toward understanding our problems and taking control with a positive action plan that has met the objective of controlling our costs and preparing for the unex-

pected,” said Leonard J. Fiegl, Amherst’s senior refuse control officer. “We have been able to reduce the price of ser- vices to our customers, from a high of $194 in 1992 to our current cost of $172 per residential unit.”

Hurricane Winds Jefferson Parish is the

second most populated __ parish in the state of Louisiana, with approxi- mately 454,000 perma- nent residents. It is a coastal parish, with the Gulf of Mexico to the

south, Lake Ponchartrain on the north and the Mississippi River run- ning directly through the center. To make matters worse, the parish lies below sea level.

Natural disasters involving water damage are common occurrences. When Hurricane Andrew struck the area in August 1992, Jefferson Par- ish was not in the hurricane’s direct path, but was hit by severe thunder- storms packing 90-mile-per-hour winds.

The winds downed large oak trees, blew off roofs and tore sidings from

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tion and disposal methods. One method is designed to handle the bulky debris created by the storm, and the other deals with the greater- than-normal amount of household waste.

“When Hurricane Andrew was approaching, Michael Yenni, parish president, suspended garbage collec- tion for 48 hours. Then we put our post-storm debris collection plan in- to action,” said Bonano.

The post-storm plan lists all the departments in the parish govern- ment and the numbers and type of equipment they own, such as dump trucks, front-end loader, etc. The president divides the parish up into distinct areas according to size and the severity of the problem in each sector. Each department is assigned an area to clean up, then receives personnel and equipment, usually consisting of a front-end loader and several trucks.

The plan calls for the debris to be trucked to two temporary sites, one on either bank of the Mississippi River, where it is dumped and sorted into wood and non-wood piles. The wood is ground in a tub grinder for later use and the non-wood debris is used as fill.

“The plan worked surprisingly well,” said Bonano. “Detailed rec- ords, kept by supervisors, ensured that every area was taken care of efficiently.

“We preserved our valuable 300 acres of landfill space and saved considerable money. The federal gov- ernment helped with financial assis- tance, but that cannot always be depended upon. A yearly set-aside of funds for disaster cleanup is a wise policy anywhere, but especially for Gulf Coast communities,” he said.

In this case, equipment with hy- draulic claw buckets such as front- end loaders and booms worked best for handling debris. Equipment with scoops took longer and damaged street surfaces, grass and dropped material when loading, according to Bonano.

une particuiariy usefui item was large 30 or 40-yard roll-off contain- ers that were left with a loading device to free up dump trucks and other vehicles to haul from other areas while the dropoffs were being loaded,” he said.

No area is immune from unexpect- ed occurrences that can throw a waste operation for a loop. It‘s best to take the time to plan now, before it‘s too late.

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buildings, which resulted in s o much debris that it took weeks to re- move it all.

“Jefferson Parish has an emergen- cy cleanup procedure for natural disasters,” said Deano Bonano, dir- ector of the parish’s department of citizen’s services. “It has been used in several hurricanes and a flood, and it works well.

“After the hurricane had passed and the cleanup began, a nearly overwhelming amount of debris was piled up on each street. Every house had a huge pile of tree limbs, roofing shingles and other debris, as well as the huge amounts of regular garbage

that needed to be collected,” Bonano added.

During a disaster like a hurricane, regular refuse collection in Jefferson Parish is usually suspended for sev- eral days, as the rain causes street flooding and the movement of the refuse trucks push water from the street into houses. Also, the strong winds can blow refuse containers a- round, spilling their contents and damaging cars. Residents are en- couraged to keep containers in ga- rages or sheds until the storm has passed.

After a hurricane, the parish must establish two separate waste collec-

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Bill Knapp is an independent solid waste consultant. He was formerly with the refuse division of the city of Los Angeles.

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