Landfill Prices Increasing The eastern part of Pennsylvania is seeing a dramatic increase in landfill prices. Bids specifications for hauling and disposal and/or use resulted in cost per ton increases from 35 to 50%. Recent bids were submitted for $88 per ton and $120 per ton. The specifications were not substantially different than previous specifications, and the biosolids were well stabilized through anaerobic digestion, high quality with respect to metals and had not caused any odor problems.What factors could have caused this increase?Landfills in the area requested PADEP approval for expansion and were denied or postponed until issues of odors and compliance were remedied. In addition, two smaller landfills in the region were closed because no expansion was approved. As a result, landfill operators foresee a reduction in the amount of Municipal Solid Waste and biosolids they can accept. By raising prices they may be able to maintain revenues while taking less waste. In addition, demand for landfill space in eastern PA is high. The closing of large landfills near New York City and in northern New Jersey force waste haulers to look westward. These haulers may be willing to pay higher tipping fees because the alternative, disposal in western PA, Ohio, or Virginia involves long haul distances. Trucking costs have suffered a double whammy with increases in fuel and insurance premiums. Lastly, a cause for increased fees is uncertainty over the additional fee of $5 per ton for the proposed Growing Greener II program.New Tool for Tracking Biosolids Costs Full Cost Accounting Protocol for Biosolids Management is available from the Water Environment Research Foundation (Project number 00-PUM-7). The 20 page report comes with EXCEL spreadsheets that can be used for each unit process and end use or disposal practice. Although the spreadsheets allow tracking of all biosolids costs: O&M, capital and indirect costs, the program can be customized to look at O&M alone. The program provides detailed listing of all possible cost items in most common biosolids processing such as thickening, dewatering, digestion, composting, incineration, heat drying, etc.The Full Cost Accounting procedures are used by solid waste management utilities and are expected to become widely used in wastewater treatment and other infrastructure programs. Once the numbers are entered into the spreadsheets, biosolids managers can target areas for optimization. By comparing results with other utilities, or benchmarking, users of this tool will be able to tell which type of biosolids management is most cost effective. Other Happenings-Annual WEF/AWWA Residuals and Biosolids Specialty Conference and Exhibition 2005 will be held at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel & Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee on April 17 - 20, 2005. The preliminary program shows that speakers from Pennsylvania include Nora Goldstein, Editor of BioCycle Magazine, who will talk about public perception, Bill Toffey from the Philadelphia Water Department, who will talk about sustainability and the EMS program, John Schmidt from Chalfont-New Britain Joint Sewage Authority, who will talk about heat drying for the normal sized plant, and Matt Higgins and Yen-Chih Chen from Bucknell University, who will talk about research on odors in biosolids. |
