Home Environment Intervale_News Price tag for Intervale compost replacement tops $2 million

Price tag for Intervale compost replacement tops $2 million

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 07 October 2010

Price tag for Intervale compost replacement tops $2 million By Candace Page October 7, 2010 The price of replacing the county’s food-and-yard-waste composting site in Burlington’s Intervale continues to rise. In January, the Chittenden Solid Waste District was planning a $770,000 temporary home for composting in a Richmond sand pit. When that plan was abandoned in the spring, attention shifted to constructing a $1.2 million facility on Redmond Road in Williston. Recently, selectboards in the county were notified the price of the Redmond Road facility has nearly doubled, to $2.24 million, but the site will become a permanent home for composting. “It is disappointing, but as we went through the permit process this summer, things were added that cost a significant amount,” Paul Stabler of South Burlington, chairman of the Chittenden Solid Waste District board, said this week. Those added costs include paving the compost floor with concrete instead of asphalt and improving stormwater treatment. Despite the cost increase, the CSWD board — made up of representatives from each Chittenden County town — agreed unanimously in September to proceed with the new composting site. Earth-moving work is expected to begin later this month. “This will let us expand our diversion of organic waste” from landfills, Stabler said. “The board is really committed to composting. We want to keep up the great participation of restaurants and others in the county.” Since 1987, a share of the county’s yard waste, food scraps, horse manure and other organics has been hauled and dumped in the Intervale, where the wastes are converted into compost and sold to home gardeners and professional landscapers. In all, the composting operation handles nearly 13,000 tons of waste a year. Composting organic waste is a key part of the district’s strategy to lessen the need for more landfill space. It makes more sense to turn leaves and food scraps into a commercial product than to truck them to distant solid-waste dumps, the district reasons. CSWD took over composting from the nonprofit Intervale Center in 2008 and is under orders from the state to move out of the Intervale by March. The state has longstanding concerns that the Intervale operation disturbs American Indian artifacts in the soil and that the Winooski River could flood the low-lying site. Stabler and CSWD General Manager Tom Moreau said the cost increase left them with a dilemma: Towns in the county already had approved the district’s capital spending, which was based on the lower cost. In a Sept. 24 letter to selectboards, Stabler asked towns whether they wanted a new vote on the capital spending plan. Only one town, Milton, has asked for that new vote. The district also must decide how to finance the compost-site construction. Although CSWD has cash reserves that could cover the cost, some commissioners are reluctant to commit a major part of those reserves to a single project. Moreau said he would like to ask county voters to approve a bond issue to cover much of the project cost in March. Commissioners will take up the financing question later this month. In the meantime, the district faces a short-term dilemma. Under its agreement with the Attorney General’s Office, the Intervale site cannot accept any new waste after March 1. The new site will not be ready until July. Moreau said Wednesday the district plans to continue accepting food waste, which would be trucked to other composters in Vermont. He acknowledged that the earlier, lower cost estimates may have been the product of “wishful thinking and naivete.” “We have smart neighbors, including IBM, who told us, ‘We don’t mind you being here, but you have to do your homework,’” Moreau said, “So the project morphed.” That included improving the management of runoff from the site, for example. Moreau said he strongly believes “we can make money on our compost eventually.” This year, sales of Intervale Compost have been down 20 percent, for reasons the district does not understand. Moreau said the district is hiring consultants to help it understand the drop in sales and to help with marketing. CSWD must also negotiate a host-town agreement with Williston before the new site opens. Among the issues, according to Town Manager Rick McGuire: how much the town will be paid for providing a home for countywide composting. Moreau and Burlington Public Works Director Steve Goodkind said the district also feels duty-bound to open a transfer station in the city, where residents can bring yard waste and food scraps without hauling them to Williston. “The epicenter of need is here,” Goodkind said. “There will be a transfer point. I know that will happen.” http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20101007/NEWS02/101006027/Price-tag-for-Intervale-compost-replacement-tops-2-million

 

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