City searches for answer on biosolids
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
The city is still looking into an alternative, long-term solution for its biosolid disposal, but Dave Jurgens, Fayetteville's water and wastewater director, said that progress has been made on the city's short-term solution.
Jurgens said the city is currently negotiating a cheaper contract to deliver its biosolids to a Waste Management landfill near Russellville.
On Tuesday morning, Jurgens received a call from American Environmental Corporation's landfill near Sand Springs, Okla., (the site was misidentified in a story about bio- solids in the Wednesday edition of the Northwest Arkansas Times ). The operator used to be in charge of disposing of the city's biosolids. Jurgens said he was told the landfill would no longer be taking biosolids from any of its five contracted cities.
Jurgens said in a phone interview with the Northwest Arkansas Times on Wednesday that he was told by a person at American Environmental Landfill that the site was being closed because residents nearby had raised public complaints about the smell produced by some of the biosolids at the landfill.
The waste shipped from Fayetteville was not the offending biosolid material. Jurgens said odor depends on the treatment and the timing of separation of the biosolids from the sewage. He said Fayetteville's treatment of the waste tends to produce biosolids with an "earthy smell."
Jurgens said the initial cost to send biosolids to Russellville was estimated at $ 60 per wet ton, but on Wednesday he had negotiated the price down to about $ 38 per wet ton. The city was only paying $ 10 per wet ton at the American Environmental landfill.
"It's still a pretty good increase over the course of a year," Jurgens said. "But it's less than we expected."
Jurgens also said the American Environmental Corporation hopes to reopen the Sand Springs landfill within three to four months, and Fayetteville could start delivering the biosolids there again.
That still doesn't change the fact that the city needs to find alternative ways to dispose of the biosolids. Jurgens said the concept of recycling the waste and using it as fertilizer is not off the table. The city as well as the contracted company, Operation Management International, that runs the city's wastewater treatment are both looking into ways to avoid sending biosolids to landfills.
Jurgens stressed that the term preliminary definitely applies to the idea of drying the waste via several stages, but he hopes to present some ideas to the City Council at the Sept. 2 meeting. Jurgens said he will also request that the city get an independent party to study how to produce more viable, long-term solutions to disposing of biosolids.
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