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HAMILTON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES MANAGER'S MEMORANDUM DATE: May 3, 2002 TO: District Policy Committee Members FROM: Jeffrey W. Aluotto, Solid Waste Manager I. Introduction/Opening Comments NOTICE: This memo is for the meeting to be held on May 9, 2002. This meeting will be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, 250 William Howard Taft Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219. Policy Committee Information (Agendas, Manager's Memos, Minutes, etc.) now available on the District's Website at www.hcdoes.org II. Clerk's Report/Additions to the Agenda A. Approval of Minutes - April 2 and March 14, 2002 Minutes from the April 2 and March 14, 2002 Policy Committee Meetings are included as Attachment A for the Policy Committee's review and approval. B. Additions to the Agenda Please contact Susan Schumacher at 946-7734 or susan.schumacher@hamilton-co.org if you have items to add to the agenda. III. Finance Subcommittee Report A. Finance Subcommittee Briefings for May 9, 2002 Mr. Graham will provide a brief report regarding the items discussed and reviewed at the Finance Subcommittee meeting of May 9, 2002. B. Recommendation Regarding District Disbursements - SWR 04/2002 The Finance Subcommittee reviewed the expenditures at their meeting held prior to this meeting. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: With any alterations or corrections noted by the Finance Subcommittee members or Policy Committee members, the Staff recommends approval of SWR 04/2002. IV. Presentations A. Reports from 2001 Reduction Assistance Grant Recipients Representatives from each of the following organizations will be present to provide a brief progress report on their grant. Village of Lockland The Village of Lockland had no recycling opportunities available until the acquisition of this grant allowed them to implement a 24-hour drop-off location near that police station. The District assisted the Village with a heavy promotional campaign for this drop-off. Gorman Heritage Farm Part of the Cincinnati Nature Center, Gorman Heritage Farm is partnering with Pipkin Market in Blue Ash to develop a composting operation for pre-consumer food material. This grant represents the District's first effort at sponsoring an organics program targeting food waste. Cincinnati Park Board The Cincinnati Park Board received a grant to implement an urban wood-waste recovery program. This program is a part of the SAW America Initiative and concentrated on material produced from the City's urban forestry activities.
Information, requiring the Policy Committee's attention, will be presented regarding a lead abatement project in the City of Cincinnati.
The District recently contracted with Eastman and Smith to provide a detailed analysis of the fee system recently implemented by the Van Wert County Solid Waste Management District. This fee system, which relies upon the District's designation authority and the contractual powers of counties, allows Van Wert to collect fees from out of State disposal facilities. This fee system has faced some legal tests and was upheld in U.S. District Court (Northern District) and subsequently in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Maharg's petition of the Sixth Circuit's decision. At the January meeting, the Policy Committee commissioned this study as a means of exploring revenue contingency plan options other than Generation Fees. Eastman and Smith's Report to the District is included as Attachment B. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: There is no Staff
Recommendation on this issue at this point pending Policy Committee
discussion. C. Omaha Paper Stock Grant At the time of this mailing, the District has still not been given final word on awarding of the Market Development Grant. ODNR did relay to District Staff that the Omaha Paper Stock Grant is being considered along with the other applications for State funds. The special meeting of the Policy Committee was necessary in order to ensure that consideration. More information will be provided as it becomes necessary. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: No action necessary at this point.
Preliminary discussions continue regarding the potential for an environmental court in Hamilton County. Recently, discussions have begun regarding the potential case-load which the City of Cincinnati might bring to such a docket. The next steps in this process involve communicating with other jurisdictions in Hamilton County to gauge their level of interest and developing more specific ideas in terms of costs and cost sharing for the docket. At the last meeting, the Policy Committee agreed on updated language for a motion supporting the concept of a Community Offenses Division of Municipal Court. This motion was not acted upon and was tabled for the May 9 meeting. One of the questions the Policy Committee still had was the level of additional work this would place on the Prosecutor's Office. The Prosecutor's Office has informed District Staff that the case-load for this type of a docket should be manageable given existing resources. However, the Prosecutor's Office wished to make it clear that, given the fact that new cases could be generated if the docket were to go into effect, current resources may not be adequate in the future. The updated motion reads: That the Policy Committee requests that the Hamilton County Commissioners, in consultation with the Presiding Judge of Municipal Court and the Prosecutor, take the steps necessary for the creation of a Community Offenses Court Session within Hamilton County Municipal Court. (Formal written Motion to be provided at the May 9 meeting). Staff Recommendation: As discussions, in effect, have already begun on this issue, Staff would recommend passing the above motion submitted by Dr. O'Reilly with an amendment, if necessary, to address the concerns of the Prosecutor's Office regarding staffing levels. V. Informational Items A. RW Beck Secondary Materials Study RW Beck, which is currently working on a secondary materials study for the District, submitted for their first interim report in March. Please see Attachment C for this full report. The purpose of this interim report was to select three materials for subsequent research regarding opportunities for District market development efforts. The materials chosen by RW Beck and Staff for further research include: Food waste and Construction and Demolition material (specifically untreated lumber and wood waste). It was determined that these materials offer the most potential for significant future waste diversion while also being most applicable to local market development efforts. Initial discussions regarding typical commodities, such as plastic, waned as it was determined that many of the market development problems facing those types of material are national, and even global, in scale. In addition, the two materials chosen are both organic materials which may provide some synergy when it comes to developing the potential for alternative management strategies. The next step in this process is to analyze the logistics behind each of these materials (i.e who is generating the material and in what quantities, how is it currently being disposed, how is it being transported, what are the costs involved in managing the material, are there opportunities for developing or initiating an alternative management strategy, are these opportunities promising enough to continue, etc.). B. Computer Event The District will be sponsoring its second computer collection event on June 13 and June 14. The event is targeted primarily at the business community. The District will be contracting with the Ohio Penal Industries (OPI) for the event. OPI will accept all of the computer waste at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and transport it to their facility in Trumbull County. Usable equipment will be refurbished and sold to schools at bargain prices. Unusable material will be scrapped and recycled. Last year the District recycled 56 tons of computer equipment at this event. The District already has approximately 300 inquiries regarding this year's event.
Planning continues for the Green Products Expo which will be held on May 16 at the Clarion Hotel in Blue Ash. This event will bring together local government purchasers and vendors of environmentally preferable products. This Expo represents an initial step in the District's efforts to more actively promote environmentally preferable products throughout the County. In addition, this event is serving as a kick-off to EPP training efforts within the County.
The District kicked-off its Mercury Collection drive on May 1, 2002. Hamilton County residents can drop off mercury containing thermometers at participating health departments and receive a digital thermometer in exchange. In addition, residents can call the District's Mercury Hotline if they have large quantities of mercury. The District is cooperating with OEPA to provide mobile collection of those large quantities and transport them to a reclamation facility in Bowling Green.
The District continues to plan for a regional recycling workshop to be held on June 5 at Sharon Woods Park. The workshop, which targets local government officials, will be a one day seminar focusing on how to improve community recycling programs from a cost and diversion standpoint. See Attachment D for workshop registration brochure.
The District learned, in April, that it had met the State mandated recycling goals for the year 2000. The District achieved at 26.58% reduction rate in the residential commercial sector and a 86.27% reduction rate in the industrial sector.
VII. Policy Committee Members' Comments VIII. Public Comments IX. Upcoming District Meetings The date and time of the next regularly scheduled Policy Committee meeting will be Thursday, July 11, 2002, at 2:00 pm at the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, 250 William Howard Taft Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219. X. Adjournment (Target Time: 3:30 p.m.) |
