St. Mary's trash heading to landfill near Waldorf

County to save $44,000 by not using King George dump

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The new destination comes as Charles County has expanded its landfill and is looking for customers to generate revenue. It will cost St. Mary's County government $67 a ton for tipping and hauling at Charles, rather than $69.20 a ton at King George, which should save at least $44,000 during the year.

It's a 130-mile round trip to King George and 65 miles to and from Charles County. "When our trailers break down it's a lot harder to deal with operationally" out in Virginia, said George Erichsen, director of public works and transportation.

King George still has capacity to handle trash from the region for 25 to 30 more years. The contract to dump at Charles County runs at least a year, but expires at the end of 2012.

"It's an unusual amount of time, but I think it works for both counties," Erichsen said.

Twenty thousand tons of trash are hauled out of St. Mary's six convenience centers every year. The garbage collected at the northern convenience centers will be hauled by public works and transportation trucks to Charles, while commercial haulers will take the rest.

Rubble and demolition waste, about 9,100 tons a year, will continue to go to King George, because it's not accepted in Charles.

St. Mary's trash used to go to Appeal in Calvert County, but Calvert commissioners shortened the length of trash hauling trucks, which cut off local public works haulers. Now the tipping costs are likely to increase in Calvert anyway to $70.85 a ton.

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D) said it was "a perfect example of why St. Mary's County needs to have its own transfer station." When 2013 comes, after the contract with Charles County ends, and he is long out of office, "St. Mary's County needs to be the master of its own destiny in regards to trash," he said. Raley's term ends in 2010.

St. Mary's requested use of Charles' landfill in 2006, but was turned down.

"In another year's time, it'll be a different situation," Raley said.

The county's budget for trash and recycling is $4.1 million for fiscal 2010, which begins July 1. Plans were in the works for the county to open its own transfer station at St. Andrew's Landfill in California, but turned out that more money would need to come in to operate it. The commissioners considered a levy on businesses in the county to help offset trash disposal costs, but it was dropped. All improved residential properties are charged $60 a year on property taxes for solid waste disposal.

jbabcock@somdnews.com