Fall River Officials to Sit in on Taunton City Council Meeting, Show their Support for Trash Disposal Plan
by Charles Winokoor (Tauton Daily Gazette) …Taunton Mayor Charles Crowley has said that EOEA officials consider the process by which such a facility operates in violation of DEP’s 20-year-old moratorium on new facilities that incinerate solid waste.
In addition, state officials have denied the city the opportunity to pursue permits to develop an ethanol-producing facility — which Crowley said would be less profitable, but more acceptable to the state — because of a gasification process that makes combustion unnecessary.
Crowley has touted that approach as a viable option to electricity production, and in March, the City Council voted to enter into negotiations with Pennsylvania-based Interstate Waste Technologies to secure financing for the $600 million project.
But, although the ethanol technology passes muster with state regulators, Crowley said the state has withheld approval because of unfavorable market conditions within the biofuel industry, which, in turn, makes long-term financing prohibitive.
With either scenario — be it electricity or ethanol — the city, he said, would collect millions of dollars in “tipping,” or royalty fees from other municipalities eager to dispose of their trash in the Silver City. To date, the city has spent at least $5 million on developing the plan, a figure that includes legal and consulting fees and property purchases.
The mayor has also said that if the city isn’t able to open a waste facility by the time the landfill closes, its annual outlay for hauling trash out of the city would be at least $3.5 million. READ MORE
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