Maryland Community Newspapers Online
County Councilwoman Marilynn Bland (D-Dist. 9) of Clinton, who voted Sept. 16 against building the facility off Southeast Crain Highway, said she organized the trip to the Covanta Transfer Station in Derwood so she and her constituents could learn more about how such facilities operate. The council and county planners want to finish the station by 2011, when the landfill on Brown Station Road is expected to reach capacity.
But after the tour, many residents said they still worry that a transfer station in Upper Marlboro would give off odors, hurt property values and clog roads with trucks transporting waste to and from the facility.
"I'm still not sold on the idea," said Robin Peace, who lives near the proposed site. "I really believe that [Bland] set this up for us to see the station, but I'm not convinced."
Derwood plant managers gave a brief presentation before leading Bland, representatives from the county Department of Environmental Resources and more than a dozen residents on a walking tour through the facility. The station accepts up to 3,000 tons of waste from between 1,200 and 1,300 trucks every day, said facility manager Peter Karasik.
Most of the compacted waste is sent by rail to the county's Resource Recovery Center in Dickerson, where it is burned for energy, or to nearby recycling facilities, Karasik said.
There was no strong odor at the reception gate of the facility, and the smell only became strong about 1,000 feet from the transfer station's entrance.
Inside the massive facility, eight small trucks, one large garbage truck and two bulldozers moved tons of trash into compactors. Plant managers said the facility handles even more during its peak hours, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Karasik said it is rare for people in the area around the transfer station to complain about odors because trash is not kept in the station overnight. "I like to think of this facility like Federal Express," he said, because trash is shipped in and out quickly. "We don't keep anything here."
Managers said complaints they do receive are often traced back to other trash-handling operations on the same site that are not associated with the transfer station.
"Most of the time it's nothing," said Ray Wimbrough, operations manager at the Covanta facility. "It takes a certain set of atmospheric circumstances," such as heat and winds, to cause odors, he said.
Steve Lezinski, an engineer at the facility, said runoff from the station is filtered through aquifers before flowing into nearby bodies of water, but stressed that any pollution comes from the trucks and not from the trash they carry.
"That's clean stuff," he said. "You'd be surprised by how much [liquid] this trash can retain."
Most of the trash at the Derwood facility is compacted before being transported out by rail. Dennis Bigley, the acting deputy director for DER, said Prince George's County planners hope to use a CSX line near the Upper Marlboro site to transport trash from the station, but it is not clear whether that will be possible.
Some residents said they worry DER will not be able to arrange rail transportation, and instead use trucks they say would cause traffic problems near Upper Marlboro.
"[Bigley] says that's part of the feasibility study," said resident Dorothy Troutman. "That doesn't sound like a guarantee. I'm concerned that they haven't figured [transportation] out before they decided this."
Troutman said she is concerned that, even if rail transportation can be arranged, trains might delay traffic at rail crossings.
Dan Filipelli, another resident, said the setting for the Covanta station makes it different from the site in Upper Marlboro. He said Derwood was already developed when the station was built, while developments are still being planned or completed in the area near the proposed site in Upper Marlboro.
He also said the Derwood facility is on flat land, so it will not be affected by air inversions, in which air presses down over low-lying areas such as Upper Marlboro and traps pollution and odors.
"This tour doesn't really address that," Filipelli said. "The issue is the setting is not appropriate."
