This crisis is the direct result of the county's failure to control both the proliferation of all solid waste and the trashing of recyclable solid waste. No effective step has been taken to forestall this crisis because performance by the county executive and evaluation by the council's Transportation and Environment Committee have been distracted for 10 years by pumped-up recycling rates.

Further, three useful actions adopted by past councils have been sidetracked by the executive.

The council needs to act. First, it should insist on an independent dollar-and-ton audit of the Solid Waste Fund, by out-of-state auditors.

Second, it should insist on the quarterly analysis of solid waste.

Third, it should insist on the implementation of the waste reduction plan specified by a far-seeing council.

It would be a scandal to throw away scarce county resources at new but avoidable incinerators and ash/trash landfills. An audit would be a good start.

Olivier de Messières, Boyds