From the Gainesville Sun

by Chris Curry

During the last year at the County Administration Building, lengthy debate has swirled around issues as far apart as the proposed amendments to the county charter and, of course, the ongoing battle over the resurfacing of Northwest 16th Avenue should include in-street bicycle lanes.

Another topic that looks primed for several months of talks has emerged- the county’s planned organics recycling facility.

At this point, at least one thing is known. As of Tuesday, the County Commission has unanimously voted to put $200,000 of a $400,000 transfer from Solid Waste reserves toward preliminary design, permitting and a location feasibility study for this planned organics recycling pant.

The other $200,000 will go toward similar “preliminary” design and permitting for a planned materials recovery facility at the Leveda Brown Environmental Park & Transfer Station.
In conjunction, the two facilities are expected to hit the county’s goal of a 75 percent recycling rate, allow for flow control over the waste stream and drastically reduce the amount of trash trucked out of county for burial in a landfill.

But I digress.

Already, e-mails and the lengthy debate at Tuesday’s meeting show that the organics facility could be quite the topic of conversation. In no small part because construction estimates have the price tag potentially topic $7 million (although a consultant said Tuesday the bare bones scaled back version could start at $1 million)

Here’s the brief run down of county’s working plan- seven “biomodules” -essentially one acre, excavated, lined and covered areas where organic materials such as food waste, cardboard, soiled paper and the like would be delivered from the materials recovery facility. Treated sewage sludge is also a possible ingredient in the stew. Then, over about three years of chemical reactions, methane gas would first be captured to sell as a potential energy source before the end result- compost, which the county could use for sod on road right-of-ways, etc.

The largely untested- at least in the United States- system met with support and skepticism Tuesday.

Former County Commissioner Penny Wheat, who chaired the county’s advisory Energy Conservation Strategies Commission a couple of years back, former Gainesville commissioner Mark Goldstein and former UF professor Dwight Adams urged commissioners to move ahead with more detailed planning.

On the other hand, John Schert, executive director of the Bill Hinkley Center of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Florida (who probably knows a thing or two about a thing or two on this subject given that title) voiced significant concerns.
“Governments aren’t good at risk and I think this system has a lot of risk to it,” Schert said.
He also had concerns about private firms getting involved in the plans-saying the compost industry has a lot of “snake oil salesman”

That’s likely a diplomatic way of saying some of them sling some very organic material.
Right now, the County Commission plans to appoint a temporary, technical advisory committee to review the organics facility plan and field alternative proposals from the private sector. That process, based on Tuesday’s discussions, will go on at the same time as a yet to be hired engineering firm starts work on permitting, design and the location feasibility study.

Solid waste staff believes it will take three to four months to go out for bids and hire a firm to handle those tasks, with the work taking an additional three to four months.

County Manager Randall Reid projected it would take two to three months to have a technical advisory committee established and its members appointed by the County Commission.