Citizen letter: vote “yes” to HB228 to put conditions on incinerator construction

Delegates of the Maryland State House of Representatives,

As a concerned resident of Frederick, MD and a member of “Waste Not! Frederick”– I urge you to vote YES to HB228.  The passage of this bill would prohibit the MD Department of the Environment from issuing a permit to construct an incinerator unless certain conditions are met; it would prohibit local jurisdictions from issuing a building permit for an incinerator unless certain conditions are met.  I understand that these conditions would not apply to incinerators already built.

As a MD resident, I oppose waste incineration for many reasons, including the following:

* Incinerators do not have public suppport–as evidenced by the majority of the engaged population which has attended public hearings, written letters to representatives and newspapers, displayed No Incinerator yard signs, etc.

* Incinerators cost hundreds of millions of dollars in construction costs alone, not including further operating and maintenance costs. They are subsidized heavily by home and business owners.

* Local jurisdictions are burdened with debt  for decades, and locked into contracts favorable only for the waste authority and the industry(Wheelabrator or Covanta) they represent..

* Incinerators continue to emit harmful substances like mercury and dioxin into the air, land and water–despite industry claims that they are safe.  For this reason, states like MA continue their moratoriums on building new incinerators in their state.

* Incinerators produce toxic/hazardous fine particle ash which is costly and hazardous to landfill.  This ash also represents a hazard in areas where it is being trucked through to reach the landfill destination, to workers, neighborhoods, etc.

* Incinerators compete with programs to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost material–both in terms of cost and because incinerators demand a large volume of material to meet minimum daily requirements.

* Incinerators will soon find a shortage of material to burn since manufacturers are changing packaging to meet the public’s demand for packaging that can be recycled or composted.  Already Frederick and Carroll Counties do not produce enough feedstock (900 tons per day/600 tons per day, respectively) to meet requirements of the proposed joint facility.

* Incinerators do not produce much electricity, given the voume of trash that must be burned.  It takes burning four times as much trash than coal to produced the same amount of electricity.

* Incinerators require fossil fuels (propane and natural gas ) to assist the waste burn process.

* 10% to 15% of waste can’t be incinerated anyway–there is a long list of “non-processable” items that must be landfilled. Occasionally, dangerous items such as propane tanks have been burned–causing major explosions and fires which have endangered the entire host community, not to mention workers and firefighters. See this article about Rochester, MA from 2007: http://no-incinerator.org/downloads/WteFireSemass.pdf

* Incinerator smokestacks are tall and unsightly, especially next to scenic rivers and historic landmarks such as the Monocacy River and the Monocacy Battlefield, where the incinerator in Frederick is proposed to be built.

* Incinerators increase traffic, which is undesirable on already conjected Rt. 85 and areas near neighborhoods and scenic national parks.

* Incinerators supplant better alternatives that save money, save the environment and produce local jobs to boost the economy.  Why drain local MD coffers to benefit a New Hampshire based company like Wheelabrator? We could be a model community in Frederick by implementing PAYT and by investing in a Resource Recovery Park, which comprises a co-location of public and private interests–including composting facilities, recycling and reuse businesses.

As an individual and as a member of Waste Not! Frederick, I urge you to pass HB 228.

Sincerely,

Sally Sorbello

Frederick, MD 21701

www.wastenotfrederick.org