2009-01-07 SWAB MeetingNEW HANOVER COUNTY SOLID WASTE ADVISORY BOARD
JANUARY 7, 2009 MEETING PAGE 1
ASSEMBLY
The New Hanover County Solid Waste Advisory Board met on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, at 4:03 p.m.
in the Lucie F. Harrell Conference Room at the New Hanover County Government Center, 230 Government Center
Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina.
Members present were: Chairman Claud "Buck" O'Shields, Jr.; Vice-Chairman Robert W. Mitchell; Martin
J. Michaelson; John Richard Newton; David Sims; Deputy County Attorney Kemp Burpeau and Deputy Clerk to the
Board of Commissioners Kymberleigh G. Crowell.
Others present were: David F. Weaver, Assistant County Manager, Environmental Management Director
John Hubbard, and Beth Schrader, Senior Budget Analyst.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER
Chairman O'Shields called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to the fmal meeting of the New
Hanover County Solid Waste Advisory Board.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Chairman O' Shields asked the members to review the draft meeting minutes of December 17, 2008 for any
needed corrections and/or changes. Hearing no comments, Chairman O' Shields called for a motion to approve the
meeting minutes of December 17, 2008.
Motion: Mr. Michaelson MOVED, SECONDED by Mr. Newton, to approve the meeting minutes as presented.
Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
FINAL REVIEW OF POWERPOINT PRESENTATION AND AGENDA DOCUMENTS FOR THE
JANUARY 20, 2009 BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING
The Advisory Board reviewed the PowerPoint presentation and related agenda packet documents in
preparation for the January 20, 2009 Board of Commissioners meeting. Mr. Mitchell noted what changes and
additions he asked staff to make to the presentation and scenario analysis documents. Beth Schrader, Senior Budget
Analyst reiterated for the Board that the Environmental Management Department entirely encompasses the
enterprise fund and as WASTEC is a component of the department, it is not an enterprise fund in and of itself.
Brief discussion was held about the maximization of methane gas production under the Scenario 1: Status
Quo slide. Members discussed that if there is a defming capability of what goes into the landfill, burning will be
more efficient and at the same time, more methane gas will be produced. Combustibles are the household wastes
while methane production is more of a liquid waste (i.e., waste from restaurant, cafeteria, etc.). If it is possible to
segregate those two kinds of wastes, there would be more efficiency in two directions making it a sorting step as
opposed to quantity.
In brief discussion about the contract to be entered under the Scenario 2: Cascade slide, Ms. Schrader
explarned that based on the Board's assumptions, as it decided to go with certain assumptions as to what the growth
and average waste would be over the five year window to perform the evaluation, what tonnage levels would need to
be in order for WASTEC to become impacted. Essentially under the scenario, 410,000 tons would be sent to the
landfill and over those five years, there would need to be approximately an 80,000 ton reduction in waste per year
(under 200,000 tons/year), in theory, before WASTEC was impacted. Director Hubbard commented that reality is if
it doesn't bottom out soon and unless the economy improves, it will at some point because reductions have been
seen over the past two years; solid waste reflects the economy. A brief discussion ensued about another operational
flexibility being, depending on the final contract, the possibility to ship ash from WASTEC out in addition to raw
garbage.
Mr. Mitchell explained the title changes he made to the Financial Tipping Fee Impact and "Economic"
Tipping Fee Adjustments slides. The first slide reflects the hard dollar costs (what would be seen in the budget
numbers) while the second slide is the theoretical benefits that are now ascribed a value. T'he adjusted tipping fee
reached is more of an apple to apple comparison; it's an economic comparison as opposed to a hard dollar
comparison.
Under the Basis for Recommendation slide, the members felt it was important to have the word "landfill"
included in the preservation bullet as everything done is in an effort to preserve landfill life. After discussion
NEW HANOVER COUNTY SOLID WASTE ADVISORY BOARD
JANUARY 7, 2009 MEETING PAGE 2
concerning adding the verbiage "recycling programs" under the opportunities bullet of this slide, the Board added it
to the slide. During a further discussion on this slide and the order of the bullets, Ms. Schrader responded to
questions that the numbers assume no borrowing.
In response to Board questions, Ms. Schrader confirmed that the financial model did not include the
reduction in natural gas consumption with WASTEC's higher operating efficiency; an attempt to compensate for the
reduction in natural gas for the boiler was never done; the numbers are conservative.
In response to Board questions concerning Scenario 2, John Hubbard, Environmental Management
Director, responded that some of the thirteen employees would be usable if the recycling program is expanded and
furloughing some current employees could be a consideration. Some decisions will need to be made soon as the
economic conditions are presenting a problem even though the budget has been cut and waste continues to drop. If
there is a continuation of loss in the waste stream, Scenario 2 would be most adversely affected because there is a
threshold that would start presenting problems. Mr. Mitchell stated that it would be dependent on the step function
on the cost. Ms. Schrader noted in regard to the original contract reference of 225,000 tons/day, a safety
factor/cushion had been included with using the estimated amount of 250,000 tons/day in regard to the contract
pricing in order not to trigger the threshold.
After discussion, the consensus of the Board was to include the PowerPoint presentation, Summary Report,
Scenario Analysis, Model Output, and Breakdown of Values Added-Subtracted from Disposal Costs in the January
20, 2009 agenda packet. In response to Chairman O'Shields question about the County Manager's Comments
section of the agenda coversheet, Assistant County Manager Weaver responded that comments will be included on
the agenda coversheet, but in terms of whether or not the County Manager agrees/disagrees or wants to modify
something in the Advisory Board's proposal that probably will not come until after the Advisory Board's
presentation to the Commissioners. His comments for the coversheet will basically state along the lines of "hear the
Advisory Board's presentation".
After a brief discussion concerning the scheduled presentation, staff was directed to schedule a time during
the week of January 12, 2009 for a presentation rehearsal. Chairman O'Shields thanked everyone for all the hard
work over the past few months stating that it had been a pleasure to work with this Advisory Board and staff.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, Chairman O'Shields adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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Kymberleigh G. rowell
Deputy Clerk to the Board