State issues permit for county to build trash transfer site

Project was snagged by litigation

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo The equipment is in place for St. Mary’s County to open its own trash transfer station, handling trash gathered locally. The county budget had $460,000 for equipment. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

That permit is now in hand, said George Erichsen, director of the St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation, issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The transfer station is estimated to cost $4.9 million and would be open to the public and commercial haulers, but only bringing in trash from St. Mary’s. From the transfer station at St. Andrew’s Landfill in California, garbage will be hauled to a landfill in King George County, Va.

The transfer station has been in the works since 2006, and there are a few more procedures to go through, but construction could begin in March 2009 if the winning bid comes back within budget. The equipment to run the transfer station is already purchased and delivered.

The hope is to start operation by July 1, 2009, the beginning of the fiscal 2010 year.

‘‘The goal is to reopen a county-controlled facility for the commercial sector of St. Mary’s County so they will no longer have to go over the bridge” and dump trash at a transfer station in Calvert County, Erichsen said. That trash comes back over the Route 4 bridge anyway on its way to Virginia.

St. Mary’s County government used to pay about $1 million to Calvert County to use the Appeal trash transfer station. With competitive tipping fees, St. Mary’s County can bring in revenue from haulers, and coupled with a yearly $60 residential fee for trash services, the entire solid waste operation should be self sustaining, without any general funds from the county budget.

This year the budget has $872,675 in general funds programmed.

The transfer station had its critics during the planning stages – from neighboring attorney John B. Norris III and Leonardtown Mayor J. Harry Norris. John B. Norris III appealed the board of zoning appeal’s decision to allow the use to the circuit court, where he was denied. The attorney also asked for an additional traffic study at the entrance of the landfill on Route 4, near his office.

Erichsen said ‘‘nothing substantive” came out of the new traffic study, except that an additional 10 feet of paint should be added to a turn lane.

Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D) said of the project’s progress, ‘‘It’s been a long time getting here. It’s going to be good for St. Mary’s County. It’s nice to see this get moving ahead.”