Landfills

Solar field opens at landfill

Rochester, New York, Mayor Lovely A. Warren recently celebrated the completion of the city’s new solar field, which will help power City Hall and divert more than 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Located at the former Emerson Street Landfill, the new solar field holds more than 7,800 solar panels that will generate approximately 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. The field was built and will be owned and operated by AES Distributed Energy of Boulder, Colorado, which is working with Solar Liberty of Buffalo as its subcontractor. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided financial support to the project.

The site has been vacant since 1972 and was recently removed from New York’s list of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites.

The pad for the solar field was constructed by the city, reusing iron slag excavated during construction of the Port of Rochester Marina, saving the city $4 million in landfill disposal costs.

In the first year, the Solar Field is expected to displace the emissions of approximately 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide—equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from nearly 500 passenger vehicles driven for one year.

The city says the solar field will move Rochester closer to the goals laid out in its Climate Action Plan and Energy Plan, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 30 percent by 2040.

Advanced Disposal strikes deal with landfill workers

After five days of striking at the Arbor Hills Landfill in Northville, Michigan, workers and landfill owner Advanced Disposal, Ponte Vedra, Florida, have agreed to a three-year contract.

Landfill operator Advanced Disposal and members of Operating Engineers Local 324 (OE324) reached the agreement Oct. 13. The deal reportedly covers 17 operating engineers at the landfill at Six Mile and Napier roads. They returned to work Oct. 16.

OE324 posted a message on its Facebook page Oct. 13 that reads, “This evening, the #OE324 members at Arbor Hills landfill reached a contract agreement with Advanced Disposal, ending a week-long strike. We congratulate the members on their new deal and thank everyone who worked hard this week to make it happen.”

As previously reported at www.WasteTodayMagazine.com/article/michigan-landfill-workers-advanced-disposal-strike, the union sought a deal that included higher wages. The contract has been in negotiations for more than a year.

Advanced Disposal says the deal was reached when the union dropped a demand for the company to participate in a union pension fund that isn’t fully funded.

The union says the pay raises bring the workers salaries in line with those at other landfills.

Republic recognizes landfill in Utah

Republic Services, Phoenix, has given its Washington County Landfill in Utah the World Class Landfill designation. This is an internal program recognizing Republic landfills that the company says display operational excellence and environmental compliance beyond state, local and federal regulations. To achieve Republic’s World Class Landfill designation, a landfill must receive a 95 percent or higher rating for two consecutive years.

The Washington County Landfill serves customers and communities throughout Washington County, including Rockville, Springdale, Washington city, Apple Valley, Enterprise, Hurricane, Ivins, LaVerkin, Leeds and others. Republic has more than 45 employees in the Washington County area who serve 55,000 local households and 1,000 commercial and industrial customers.