Garbage proposal isn't for long haul

After months of closed-door negotiations, Charleston County has negotiated a contract to send at least 250 tons of garbage daily to the privately owned Oakridge Landfill in Dorchester County.

The proposed contract is aimed at finding a new home for some of the Charleston County waste currently burned at an incinerator in North Charleston. The county previously decided to stop using the incinerator, which is the current destination for 70 percent of the county's municipal waste, by the end of this year.

A memorandum from the Charleston County legal staff released Wednesday afternoon said that council will be asked at a meeting tonight to authorize the county administrator or council chairman to execute contracts "for short-term transfer and hauling services and short-term disposal for Charleston County."

The language of the memorandum suggests that the two-year contract is seen as a temporary measure, and that it includes provisions to transfer and haul waste collected by municipalities, which have been concerned about the added cost of trucking garbage out of the county.

Dorchester County Council has opposed the idea of receiving garbage from Charleston County, and has raised concerns about added truck traffic, but the landfill on U.S. Highway 78 is privately owned and Dorchester County has no control over the deal.

"We certainly are cognizant of Dorchester County's concerns, but our concern is Charleston County," said Charleston County Administrator Allen O'Neal.

He said there are still some details to be worked out in the proposed contract, and said he could provide no information on what the county would pay to send waste to the landfill.

County attorney Joe Dawson handled all the negotiations, O'Neal said. Dawson makes a practice of not speaking to reporters.

O'Neal said the landfill deal has not been finalized or approved by Charleston County, but if it is, the flow of garbage to Dorchester County "would probably start to happen right away."

Dorchester County does receive a $1 fee for every out-of-county ton of garbage that goes to Oakridge Landfill, and Dorchester County Council Chairman Jamie Feltner said the county has also been negotiating for highway intersection improvements.

"Our concern was for the safety of the residents, and the infrastructure not being able to adequately handle the increase in truck traffic," he said. "Through some negotiations, we worked out that we will be able to make some improvements to intersections."

Feltner said the plan is to have landfill owner Waste Management Inc. pay for improvements to the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and S.C. Highway 27, and the intersection in front of the landfill. He said Dorchester County has urged that additional truck traffic stay off local roads as much as possible.

"Because Dorchester County could not prevent the waste from coming here, we appreciate the fact that Charleston County and Waste Management were willing to negotiate mitigating the impact," Feltner said.

He said Dorchester County does not yet have a written agreement on the intersection improvements, but said the issue has been agreed upon.

If Charleston County goes forward with the landfill deal, it would divert about 22 percent of the county's municipal waste to Dorchester County.

With the incinerator closing, Charleston County's only remaining disposal site was the Bees Ferry Landfill in West Ashley.

Currently, the Bees Ferry Landfill takes in about 91,000 tons of garbage yearly, about 53,000 tons of ash from the incinerator.

The incinerator accepts 212,000 tons of garbage. The ash sent to the landfill is a by-product, which is used for landfill cover.

The county's 20-year contract to use the incinerator expires at the end of this year, and County Council decided against renewing the contract, which faced staunch opposition from the surrounding community.

If Charleston County sends the minimum 250 tons of garbage daily mentioned in the contract memo to Oakridge Landfill, five days a week year-round, that would amount to 65,000 tons. That's nearly a third of the amount now going to the incinerator.

The memorandum from the county's legal staff mentioned no maximum amount of garbage that could go to Oakridge Landfill.

One question not addressed by the memorandum to Charleston County Council is the location where waste would potentially be transferred from municipal garbage trucks for hauling to Oakridge Landfill.

The county is still working on long-term plans for waste management, and has set a goal of composting all of the county's yard waste and quadrupling the rate of recycling to 40 percent of household waste. Currently, about 51,000 tons of yard waste end up in the Bees Ferry Landfill yearly because the composting facility is too small.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.