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Article from The Bulletin newspaper, Bend,
Oregon
LOCAL
Saturday, August 1, 2003 - The
Bulletin Bend, Oregon
Crook County Landfill looks to hydromulch
By Ernestine Bousquet
The Bulletin
In the world of garbage, space is money. The Department
of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requires landfills to bury exposed
garbage at the end of each day with six inches of soil in order
to contain waste, reduce fire hazards and prevent birds or rodents
from digging into the garbage. But the dirt takes up space
that could be better used for trash. As a result, some
garbage sites, such as the Crook County Landfill, are considering
a process of spraying hydromulch instead of dumping dirt on garbage
to cover waste areas each day. By switching, Crook County
could accommodate more garbage at its landfill. It could
also help extend the life of its new waste pit, or cell, which
was unveiled last month. The hydromulching technique, often
used to plant grass, involves spraying a thick mixture of water
and a mulch over an area from a motorized machine that has a
nozzle and a tank. The mulch used at landfills contains
recycled paper, wood products, binding agents and a fire retardant
that forms a quarter-inch to half-inch layer that hardens over
the waste. Alan Keller, the supervisor for the Crook County
Landfill, said using a hydromulch system would save time, labor
and dirt. The landfill uses about 180 to 240 cubic yards
of dirt a day, seven days a week.
DESCHUTES COUNTY'S garbage site also uses
hydromulch system
It takes up to three hours to cover a 2,500-5,000 sf waste site
with dirt, Keller said. Spraying hydromulch would cut the
labor time down to 30 minutes, he estimated. This will save our
dirt source," Keller said. " Dirt will run out
pretty soon and we'll have to start looking around for other
dirt." To see how well the system works, Keller has
to look no further than Deschutes County's garbage site, Knott
Landfill, which has been using a hydromulch process since last
October in a test. Chad Centola, the operations manager
for Knott Landfill, said he has been satisfied with the hydromulch
material so far. It has withstood strong winds, takes only 5
to 10 minutes to apply over a 7,000 to 10,000 s. f. working area
and saves the landfill's dirt for other uses. "This
spray material is a space saver for us." Centola said. "The
more we can use , the longer the landfill can operate. And
it's a lot less labor." Centola said that the hydromulch
has performed well under rainy and snowy conditions thus far. Hydromulch
materials is one of the alternative daily waste covers to dirt
approved by the DEQ, according to Don Bramhall, a natural resource
specialist with the department's solid waste program. And
it seems to be gaining popularity because dirt, like space, is
a precious commodity for a landfill.
"It costs money to move dirt, dirt uses landfill space
and the landfill space has an economic value." Bramhall
said. "Looking at the practical side, If you're
putting down a six-inch layer of dirt, you can't put garbage
in. Over time, that adds up to a lot of lost garbage volume."
Hydromulch also comes with a price tag. Centola, of Deschutes
County's landfill, estimated it spends about $150 to $175 per
day on mulching projects and uses about 14 bags per application. Keller,
Crook County's landfill supervisor, is considering a hydromulch
machine that will cost $34,000. he said the mulching product
would cost $14 a bag and he expects to use an average of five
bags per application, which would cost the landfill about $70
a day.
It's money that can be easily recouped, according to Arman Kluehe,
Owner of Portland-based Emerald Seed and Supply, a distributor
that sells hydromulch product and equipment to landfills. Kluehe
estimated that a landfill such as Crook County's loses up to
$1 million worth of space a year by using dirt as a daily cover. On
his company Web site, Kluehe estimated that using a quarter-
to half inch of hydromulch layer instead of a six-inch dirt layer
over a half acre site could generate roughly $9,000 a day in
added revenue for a landfill, even after factoring in the cost
of the hydromulch machine and product. The calculations
are based on the value of space lost when dirt takes the place
of waste, Kluehe said. Mike Mohan, a Crook County commissioner,
said a hydro mulch system would essentially pay for itself because
the landfill would have more space for garbage instead of dirt. "Its'
an efficient way to manage what we have," Mohan said. "If
we can extend the life of the new cell even by two years, that's
a substantial savings to the taxpayer." The Crook
County Court is expected to approve the purchase of a hydromulch
machine at its next meeting, on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
Ernestine Bousquet, The Bulletin
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