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• FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -9- June 23, 2004 Interim report from the Solid Waste Commission on organized collection (continued) Council member Lamb said the critical issue about landfills is that, under law, they are mandated to be managed for 20 years after closure. The people who manage the landfill have the responsibility for 20 years after closure. The question is: Is 20 years long enough when you think about environmental impact? The downside of using the incinerator is that the waste tends to have a higher percentage of toxins. You are left with heavy metals and how do you dispose of that? These issues are not simple and require a lot of study. There are environmental people and educational institutions on one side of the issue, and haulers and waste facility managers on the other side of the issue. As usual, it is very difficult to sort through all of the facts. Where the Commission is: If you go through all of the goals, the two goals that are really in dispute have to do with environmental impact and the issue of trucks and road maintenance as it relates to having five trucks as opposed to one, two or three. The statute says that the City needs to set up a schedule of at least three months to study this. Three months isn't long enough to do a study and do an adequate job. The City Council does not have to grant permission to go past the three months as we are just getting an interim report this evening. After the first period, if the Commission believes there is enough to go ahead, to go to managed collection, which could • either mean a single hauler in the City or a single hauler within zones of the City, the next period is dedicated to trying to figure out how best to negotiate contracts with haulers who would then serve the City. It is an elongated study period. The first period is more or less studying the issues of the industry and the second period has more to do with studying the current marketplace that we live in. That second period won't start until the first period is completed. Council member Lindstrom said that several months ago there seemed to be some real confusion about the Newport facility and its ability to handle everything. Council member Lamb said the haulers' representatives came to the initial meeting and said the Newport facility could not handle the volume of waste. They said they were taking their waste to Newport. The Ramsey County website said two of the City's haulers trucked 100% to Newport and two trucked a percentage of their waste to Newport. Haulers said that if they brought all of their waste to Newport the facility could not handle that volume of waste. There are four tracks or assembly lines at the Newport facility. Everything is sorted. Two tracks are in use and two are not because they don't have sufficient waste contracted to them to keep all four going. The Newport facility has more capacity than volume. The County's web site that lists the haulers has not been updated and that is the fault of Ramsey and Washington Counties. At least one of the City's haulers is adamant they are taking all of their waste to Newport. The haulers have signed five year contracts to either bring all or some of their waste to Newport. Contracts will help manage and stabilize the quantities coming in. • ~l~