The following letter was sent by the Dublin/Darlington Community Council to Harford County Executive David Craig, County Council President Billy Boniface, and County Councilman Chad Shrodes. A copy was provided to The Dagger for publication:
Dear County Executive Craig:
At our regular meeting on January 18, 2012, the members of the Dublin/Darlington Community Council voted unanimously on behalf of the residents of the Dublin/Darlington community to support your efforts to establish a new solid waste transfer station at a location more convenient to many county residents than the Harford Waste Disposal Center (commonly referred to as Scarboro).
As you know, the existing operation near Dublin serves several major county-wide functions:
• The County’s only active municipal sanitary landfill;
• Homeowner trash dropoff;
• The white goods collection center (including metals);
• The recyclables receiving center; and
• The lawn and garden recyclable composting facility (both dropoff of yard waste, and vehicles receiving compost and mulch)
Each of those generates significant traffic, and on Saturdays and other busy days there are usually long lines of cars blocking local roads while waiting to gain entrance to the facility. Additional heavy truck traffic is generated by removal of leachate for treatment at Sod Run and delivery of ash from the Waste-to-Energy Facility.
The Dublin/Darlington area is also host to private solid waste facilities that generate significant truck traffic, including a scrap metal dealer and the home base for the HSS trucks that pick up household trash from throughout the county.
Given the traffic congestion at the county’s existing operation near Dublin and the convenience value for homeowners who would no longer have to negotiate traffic crossing the entire county, we believe your efforts to establish an additional transfer location make great sense.
Sincerely,
Richard D. Norling, Chair
cc: Hon. Billy Boniface
Hon. Chad Shrodes
Absolutely! Living near this facility, you can’t help but see the ever-longer lines waiting for their chance at the disposal site on a weekend. A new more convenient site would be a great improvement! An improvement for those who live nearby, and for those making the long trek, perhaps a shorter trip..?
The Scarboro operation is a great example of a community service, and everyone there is to be commended on taking care of an important function: I wish them all the best. But maybe it’s time to relieve the congestion and create a new, improved site for this important work. Thanks!~
“Living near this facility”, How would you like to live near where they want to put the Transfer Station on Rt.7 near Rt.152 which has, in its area, a incinerator plant where about 66 trucks go in & out 6 days a week, a sand and gravel pit leaving dust and dirt everwhere, Oak Ave Land fill with fire coming out of the ground 24/7, over 1000 wrecked cars in a car dump, a concrete factory, and a used tire transfer station where they shred tires. All within a mile of each other. I agree it should not go at Scarboro, it should go near the train tracks where the “trash” could be loaded on trains and sent out of town. There are several around the State. If you put in a transfer station and not by the train tracks where you could get rid of the trash, you will be doubling the truck traffic in the County. For every trash truck that comes into this area, another one has to come in to take the trash out.
Dion, our purpose was not to favor or oppose any specific other site. But one lesson I think we can see from the congestion at Scarboro is that one of the siting criteria for such facilities should be locating very close to major roads, so additional traffic does not impact small, narrow roads or go through residential areas.
Regards, Rich
How many of those sites located within a mile of each other were already present when local residents bought their homes? If any, they can’t be used in any argument against the proposed site.
Most importantly, it’s virtually undeniable that the lower County needs this– so I’d like to see a specific better site proposed, rather than just complaining about the current proposal.
It’s even reasonable to shelve the idea for a certain period of time to see if a better site can be found, one with the rail feature you describe. But if not, time to move on and build it.
I’d also like to see you give an estimate of how much it would cost the County to ship out the waste as opposed to the current proposal.
Obviously, for all the reasons the darlington council is for the new site the residents of joppa agree and do not want the same in our neighborhood. Even less space than scarboro and a one lane road. Traffic from the trucks alone will make life unbearable.