Sudden ‘biosludge’ contract change leaves Fayetteville scrambling
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fayetteville has tons of "biosludge"and no costeffective place to put them.
Dave Jurgens, Fayetteville's water and wastewater director, told the city's Sewer Committee on Tuesday that the American Environmental Landfill, which is under contract to handle the city's solid waste, called that morning and told him the landfill is no longer taking biosludge.
Biosludge is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process.
Jurgens said the American Environmental Landfill is under contract to give the city 30-days notice when canceling services but when he pointed that out to the organization, he was told to go ahead and file a lawsuit. The landfill was only going to accept the two trucks that were already on the road from Fayetteville, and that was it, Jurgens said.
He said he spent most of the day fast-tracking ideas he'd worked on with city staff to enact when the American Environmental Landfill stopped allowing biosludge. For the time being the waste will go to a Waste Management landfill in Russellville. Jurgens said the distance for the trucks to travel is about the same as the trips they were taking to Sand Springs, Okla., but the tipping fee to dump sludge was $ 50 more per wet ton than the city was originally paying. The city hauls more than 20, 000 wet tons a year.
"At this point we're looking at both short- and longrange alternatives," Jurgens said.
One unique solution that came to the table is something Jurgens and his staff have been studying for a little less than a year. The idea would send the biosludge through a series of drying processes, eventually the biosludge would go from what the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as only landfill disposable to an organic solid, devoid of pathogens, that farmers could use to fertilize their crops.
"It's absolutely a longterm solution," Jurgens said. "This is an incentive to do what's best and do what we were thinking about doing anyway. "
Jurgens said he's still looking into the details, but he believes that biosludge disposal is a part of the city's wastewater treatment plan and that water and sewer improvement project funds could be used as initial capital to purchase and build facilities to dry and store the biosludge. He said it could cost about $ 7 million to $ 8 million if the city does all the drying and storing in-house.
The committee agreed that it would like to see the city start moving away from the landfill solution.
"We always knew that hauling to a landfill was not the most desirous option," Jurgens said.
In other news the committee voted to pass on another set of sewer impact fees to the council for review.
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