NERC in the News
After the Flood, Trash Haulers and Landfills Work Overtime
 |
The Rutland (Vermont) Herald; September 7, 2011
By Brent Curtis
STAFF WRITER
As cleanup efforts continue around the state, trash haulers and solid waste districts are measuring the damage by the yard, the ton and the mile.
“A typical day is two to three 100-yard (capacity) tractor-trailers. On Friday we filled eight on Gleason Road,” said Jim O’Gorman, district manager at the Rutland County Solid Waste District.
The hours have been long at the Gleason Road transfer station since Irene let loose severe flooding, O’Gorman said, with crews working longer days and during the Labor Day holiday.
But with mountains of muddy debris and collapsed structures to haul away, O’Gorman and other waste company representatives from around the state say they know they won’t be getting any rest anytime soon.
“Gov. Shumlin asked us to stay open on the holiday weekend and we obliged that request,” said Tom Badowski, general manager at the Moretown Landfill.
As one of only two commercial landfills in the state, Badowski’s site has been a hive of activity with trucks from all over Vermont converging there. Normally allowed to handle a maximum of 1,000 tons of refuse a day, the landfill was granted a two-week waiver by the state to exceed the limit.
“I’ll probably end up asking for another week,” Badowski said Tuesday.
Trash haulers spent most of last week trying to get to the Moretown site or the other commercial landfill in Coventry. By Tuesday, most of the primary routes had been restored, but road closures in cut-off places such as Pittsfield were still impeding major transportation corridors, he said.
The condition of many smaller roads also made it difficult for trash haulers to reach some customers in more isolated communities.
Randy Dapron, a market manager with Casella Waste Management, said after a week of rerouting trucks to work around roads that were either closed or incapable of supporting the heavy vehicles, some were forced onto back roads to reach places such as Winhall, Jamaica, Londonderry, West Londonderry and Weston.
“It’s been action-filled to say the least,” Dapron said of the previous week.
Like the transfer stations and the landfill, Casella’s trucks were rolling Monday, Dapron said. But while the week was a busy one, Dapron said it included a number of moments that are all too rare in the sanitation business.
“We got hugs when we showed up at some places,” he said. “People were excited to see a garbageman. I think it was a sign to them that things were going to be OK and maybe return to normal.”
During the first few days of the cleanup, Dapron said, a lot of the trucks returning from isolated communities were filled with household trash and food that spoiled without power.
Now the company’s trucks are trying to keep up with the removal of debris, including construction debris that is being hauled away with the household trash because of its condition.
“Normally with construction debris we would grind it. But if there’s layers of mud on it the grit will cause damage to the grinder over time,” O’Gorman said.
While solid waste operators like O’Gorman said separating the construction debris from the garbage going into landfills wasn’t possible, they were taking steps to make sure more toxic elements are disposed of properly.
In Rutland, O’Gorman said he’s making plans with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to host hazardous waste collections at multiple sites, including the transfer station.
In Moretown, John Malter — the administrator for the Mad River Resource Management Alliance, which serves eight communities — was at the Moretown Landfill on Tuesday as part of an emergency household waste collection that began Friday and will end today at 4 p.m.
As of Tuesday morning, Malter said workers had collected almost as many paint buckets, solvents and other toxic containers as they usually do in a year.
“We’re just trying to help ease the situation by giving folks a chance to do the environmentally right thing,” he said.
A guide created by the Northeast Recycling Council for residents and small businesses dealing with flood debris can be found at http://goo.gl/YRy62.
