Prepared Comments Made to
CANTON CITY COUNCIL
January 14, 2013
The City of Canton anticipates increased
costs for the disposal of sludge as a result of Federal environmental
regulation. This is a problem that was set in motion in the early 1970s when
Canton chose to shorten its wastewater treatment process and eliminate the use
of digesters at the treatment plant.
Digesters render the mass of sludge that
remains at the end of the treatment process and converts it into a
non-hazardous form so that it may be handled or used with minimal health
hazards.
This council body should be discussing the
restoration of the use of digesters at the treatment plant so you are not left
with hazardous sludge that requires special handling.
Concocting an arrangement where Canton
agrees to accept a waste product from American Landfill in exchange for their
agreeing to accept Canton’s hazardous sludge for disposal at a landfill only
serves to increase the amount of hazardous materials going into a landfill.
The taxpayers of Canton expect city leaders
to handle the city’s waste in an environmentally friendly manner. Sending ever growing
amounts of hazardous sludge to a landfill when this can be avoided is NOT a
prudent course of action to take in this situation.
Any course of action that does not return
to a more complete and environmentally friendly treatment of wastewater at the
treatment plant simply compounds the predicament that this Council is now
facing.
The legislation before you to approve a contract between the City of
Canton and American Landfill, allowing
American Landfill to construct a 12-mile pipeline to dispose of leachate, has
been presented as a means to avoid increases in sewer rates for rate payers who
utilize sewer services provided by the City of Canton.
After analyzing the sewer charges I pay to
the City of Canton for residential sewer treatment, I am wondering why the
leachate pipeline is being contemplated at all.
For my wife and me, if the City of Canton
would prefer to not accept the leachate from American Landfill, with all the
pitfalls that the deal entails, a 5.0% rate increase would increase my monthly
costs for Canton Sewer from $5.00 per month to $5.25 per month. A 7.25% rate
increase that has also been proffered would raise my monthly costs from $5.00
per month to $5.36 per month. These are not burdensome increases.
Is this really what the concern is all
about? Entering into a deal such as is proposed simply to avoid increasing
sewer bills by an amount that equals pocket change that most of us carry in our
pockets!
I would think that there is NOT one
single Canton sewer rate payer who would suggest that the City of Canton accept
leachate from a landfill simply to avoid a monthly increase in their sewer bill
of what amounts to pocket change.
The need to dispose of sludge at a higher
disposal rate has come at a convenient time and what I believe to be only a
smokescreen for the highly questionable contract to accept leachate from a
landfill.
The disposal of sludge at a lower rate is
camouflage for the contract that asks the taxpayers to take on the problems of
a landfill.
The upcoming increase in costs to dispose
of sludge can easily be absorbed with an increase in Canton sewer rates with
little impact on rate payers as I have shown.
I believe the proposed leachate pipeline is
driven by politics and that the reasons that have been put forth by the
Administration to move ahead with the contract with Waste Management do not
warrant passage of the legislation.
The parent company of American Landfill is Waste
Management, a corporation with more than $12.5 billion in revenue in 2010, and
they are looking for ways to reduce expenses related to the disposal of
leachate. That is what this deal is all
about. And what better way than to wrap this deal up and make it appear to be
beneficial to the City of Canton when it absolutely is not good for Canton.
I strongly urge Canton City Council to vote
down the proposed contract with Waste Management.
In the interim, I urge Canton City Council
to cover the cost of sludge disposal through an increase in sewer rates and to
look into restoring the digester treatment process at the treatment plant that
was once utilized by Canton’s wastewater treatment plant.
Any action short of that is a band-aid on
the problem of sludge disposal.
Until Canton further refines its treatment
process, you will always be left with sludge that must be landfilled and you
will again find yourselves at the mercy of people looking to unload their waste
issue on the taxpayers of Canton.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
City of North Canton
