Thomas, Peter, Jackie, Paul, Bill, Mike

COE Agenda 4-3-18

Written by Thomas Brewer, COE President

1906 MSW data from DPW&T

    –I requested some data on the Municipal Solid Waste in the county from Nick Zurkan at the Department of Public Works and Transportation. The following is his reply with 2016 data:

18,000 tons were collected at the Convenience Centers (residential MSW) alone and taken to several disposal sites:

5,000 tons taken to Covanta (energy from waste)  

      5,128 tons to Wheelabrator (resource recovery facility)

       7,890 tons to King George (Landfill)

Private haulers servicing St. Mary’s County, both residential and commercial, disposed material at Appeal in Calvert County (approx 27,600 tons), where it was loaded in trailers and hauled to and dumped at the King George Landfill in VA:

       10,400 tons of residential MSW

      17,243 tons of commercial waste

I had also requested the landfill-related debt to determine if the Commissioners had been addressing this over the years, but Nick is still waiting on Finance. With it being budget time, their office is understandably slow to respond.

Pete asked about who is consolidating – Calvert County or private contractor? Or how is the load divided? Based on college student paper, Thomas estimates the tri-county has enough material to make an industrial compost operation profitable. In 2014, there was $2.3M in debt for the landfill closure.

1918 Community Gardens

    –At the last meeting, we discussed community gardens as being a positive potential project for the residents of Lexington Park. At present, this is a food desert in the county, so community gardens could provide access to affordable produce that is presently inaccessible for many Lexington Park residents. We thought of two groups that could help in the planning and implementation of this endeavor, the St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation and St. Mary’s County Recreation and Parks. I have reached out to representatives of each of these departments and am awaiting responses.

Thomas will reach out to Dr. Brewster and Ag/Seafood Board; one of the main areas of focus is the old Flattops; discussion about “desert” given that Weis is in the Square;

1928 Workshops

    –I have been in contact with Ben Beale, and he is still trying to identify potential presenters for a backyard vegetable garden workshop. When he finds someone, we can begin planning a time and location for the event.

1928 Earth Day on the Square

    –I have one of the compost bins from last year’s workshop that we can use at our table for Earth Day on the Square, which is scheduled to take place on the actual Earth Day, Sunday, April 22nd. I have requested access to one of the remaining rain barrels that are being stored in one of the barns at the Fairgrounds. This could help to attract potential participants for workshops that we may hold in the future. We should also try to determine who can be present at the table for different times throughout the event, which will be from 12:30-4:30, with set up time before the event begins.

Thomas will plan to be there the whole time, but may share some time with another table; Mike should also be there the whole day;

1935 MRF tour

    -The Prince George’s MRF had construction that forced the tours to be delayed. This proved somewhat frustrating, as we were planning to go during the public school spring break so that Sierra, Paul’s daughter, could join and she was looking forward to doing so, but the delay extended through spring break. I am still planning to schedule a tour, even if I am the only one that can attend. I plan to take pictures and videos and put together a presentation that we can make available for the public.

1943 Mike – METCOM- spent $4M on methane cogen; does not work; do it at larger scale successfully;

Closed at 2002