Waste district seeks new compost sites

One should be concerned of the locations of composting facilities, considering the State has allowed all facilities to be constructed near or around Vermont waterways.

By Candace Page • Free Press Staff Writer • August 22, 2008

WILLISTON -- Who would have thought that disposing of Chittenden County's orange peels, wilted lettuce and plate scrapings would be trickier than a championship chess match?

The waste district is talking with at least four local landowners and two landowners in Washington and Addison counties about composting Chittenden County's organic waste.

That solution would be more expensive for those who generate food waste -- Fletcher Allen Health Care, restaurants, schools and food processors -- because the waste would have to be hauled longer distances.

To persuade them to keep composting, the waste district would probably have to subsidize those extra costs to the tune of $82,600 a year, General Manager Tom Moreau told his executive board Wednesday evening.

"We needed a Plan B because Plan A -- keeping Intervale open -- is extremely complicated and still tenuous," Moreau said in an interview.

Plan B, too, is tenuous, since none of the four potential in-county sites is licensed. Each would have to seek approval from state regulators.

Intervale Compost Products, operated by the nonprofit Intervale Center, has been in trouble with state regulators for nearly a year for alleged environmental violations and historic preservation missteps.

If complex negotiations work out, Chittenden Solid Waste District will take over the compost operation at its current site for two years, while it finds a longer-term solution. But first, the district must:

Settle with the Attorney General's Office. Issues include the size of the fine to be levied on the Intervale Center as well as the conditions regulators will impose on CSWD's operation of the compost site.

Negotiate a contract with Intervale Compost to take over the operation.

Determine the cost of operating the site, and whether the district wishes to spend that amount.

Find a way to overcome the Federal Emergency Management Agency's objections to composting in a floodway.

"That could be the fatal flaw," Moreau told the board, referring to FEMA's objections. However, he said, in recent weeks Vermont's congressional delegation has stepped in and the possibility of resolving the issue has improved.

Negotiations with the Attorney General's Office have been on hiatus this week because one of attorney general negotiators is on vacation, Moreau said.Saputo, the largest generator, will dispose of its own waste, it has told the waste district. Remaining waste: either hauled to Vermont Compost Co. in Washington County or landfilled. A fourth county landowner has expressed preliminary interest in handling liquid food waste.

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