01-03-1985 Council Packet Special Meeting

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ALLOCATION OF LAND DISPOSAL CAPACITY Capacity, location and operational factors must be considered in the develop- ment of new land disposal capacity. Adequate capacity is needed to ensure the continued efficient operation of the solid waste management system. Locational factors such as accessibility and convenience are also important. Operational factors such as how many years a facility operates is important to the host community. Waste generation rates are not expected to change significantly in the future so any increases in the total quantities of waste will occur due to population and employment growth. County land disposal capacity can be dropped from fur- ther consideration at any time, but the acquisition of capacity by the counties can only occur once. After the counties select their proposed sites, sites eliminated from the inventory cannot be reconsidered for county acquisition with regional funds at a later date. Therefore, the Council must make sure that its forecast of required landfill capacity is sufficient to meet land dis- posal needs through the year 2000. The landfill development schedule is be based upon the Council"s waste genera- tion and solid waste abatement projections. The volume of disposal capacity needed is based on the waste reduction/resource recovery development schedule. At the same time however, the region should avoid the implementation of new capacity that is not needed in the immediate future. Excess capacity could defer action on the implementation of alternative methods of waste management. Remaining capacity should be kept below a certain level to help ensure that landfilling is the solid waste management option of last resort and encourage the development of abatement programs. Currently, the Metropolitan Area is served by eight landfills located in four of the seven counties. The southern portion of the region is saturated with capacity whereas the northern portion has a paucity of capacity. Too few or a poor distribution of landfills in the region could result in excessive haul distances and leave the region vulnerable to interruptions in service if prob- lems occurred at any of the sites. Sites must be distributed in such a way as to best serve the region with a minimum number of sites. The location of existing land disposal capacity and potential processing facili- ties were used to determine where new facilities must be located in the region. The Council will review the development schedule annually to make adjustments to the schedule or the allocation of disposal capacity required. Capacity cai be reduced if abatement facilities and programs exceed the objec- tives of the waste reduction/resource recovery development schedule. In addi- tion, an increase in landfill capacity of one county, due to an expansion of an existing landfill or development of a new private landfill, will substitute for the regional capacity needs. Finally, the limited number of operating landfills in the future could mean that individual sites may play an even more prominent role in the solid waste system. Landfills should operate long enough to avoid frequent turnover in sites. Land- fills should not be operational for such a length of time that they are per- ceived as conflicting with Council policy that landfilling be an interim land use. However, landfills accepting only residuals from processing facilities fi]