Families Against Cancer & Toxics

By Michael Sullivan

Herald/Review

SIERRA VISTA - An independent citizens committee has been formed to study alternative landfill solutions in the county.

The group, which calls itself the Landfill Alternatives Committee, had an organizational meeting on Dec. 23 and is already conducting research.

"Our committee is independent and not affiliated with the county or local cities," said Lee Basnar, a Sierra Vista columnist and author. "For that reason, this committee can take a skeptical, but open-minded look at several possible solutions to solid waste disposal."

The committee includes a businessman, Lee Knaeble; a retired geologist, Sandy Kunzer; and a retired physicist, Rick Romeo, Ph.D., who recently moved to the area from Hanford, Wash.

The formation of this team follows a recent presentation to county and city officials and members of the public by California-based Global Energy Resources.

The GER proposal would rely primarily on a plasma converter, which uses extreme heat to transform solid waste to gas. The gas can be used to generate energy, the company claims. GER officials also claim that a glass-like inert by-product can be used for road construction materials and in the abrasives industry.

"The LAC will seek independent verification of GER's claims and will explore the possibility of emission toxicity," Basnar said. "We're going to get to the meat of this thing."

Basnar said he has researched several programs in use around the world and will work with this team of professionals to consider future countywide programs that might supplant the current solid waste disposal system. The county currently buries most solid waste in cells located at the county's Western Regional Landfill.

Basnar said he conducted his own research on another alternative process, which compresses cardboard into pellets that are burned to supplement coal.

"This process reduces energy costs while recycling materials that would otherwise end up in landfills," he said.

Institutions such as Eileson Air Force Base, in Alaska, have been pelletizing cardboard and have saved more than $1 million in reduced coal and landfill costs, he said.

Basnar presented this and other information last year to Pat Call, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, and L.H. Hamilton, director of Solid Waste Management. Hamilton then expanded on this research and discovered GER's program as another possible solution to "the escalating amounts of trash that result from a lack of a countywide recycling system," Basnar said.

Local responses to the GER presentation were both positive and skeptical, motivating Basnar to form a group to conduct further investigations into the recycling of solid waste. He said he is communicating with GER Chairman/Manager Wesley Bilson.

Basnar has been working with Willcox City Manager Gilbert Davidson, who chairs the Rate Review Advisory Board.

"The Solid Waste Rate Review Advisory Board seeks viable solutions for the disposal of solid waste within Cochise County," Davidson said. "Presently, the method used to dispose of solid waste is to bury it. If another alternative to burying the waste in landfills is available and proves to be safe, efficient and feasible, every effort should be made to explore this opportunity. The proposed 'waste-to-energy' concept is being analyzed and if this proposal is not feasible for any reason, the RRAB will continue to operate the countywide solid waste system as efficiently as possible. The exploration of new technology to improve current waste disposal methods must be continued and is an on-going challenge."

The committee will also be working with Hamilton, who has conducted his own research but has not had sufficient time to look into GER's proposal in depth.

"The county doesn't have the staff," Basnar said. "L.H. Hamilton is a very busy guy."

According to Basnar, Call said he supports the committee and is in favor of exploring innovative solutions to the current landfill system.

The Landfill Alternatives Committee hopes to present its findings to county and city officials and the public within the next few weeks.

REPORTER Michael Sullivan can be reached at 515-4682.