Plan for new waste-to-energy plant eases need to create new county landfill

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Palm Beach County commissioners tentatively agreed Wednesday to build a waste-to-energy plant capability of burning up to 3,000 tons of trash a day — eliminating the need for a new western landfill for decades.

The Solid Waste Authority has already sold $70 million in bonds to buy land and build a new landfill. It has begun paying interest on the money.

That money cannot be used for to build the new plant, which could cost $600 million to $700 million. County Commissioner Karen Marcus, chairwoman of the Solid Waste Authority's governing board, said it was unclear what the authority will do with the bond money now that there's no immediate need for the landfill.

"Basically the construction of this mass burn facility will increase the life our existing landfill and diminish the immediate need for a new landfill," said Dan Pellowitz, assistant to the authority's executive director. "We can defer construction of a landfill for some time."

As recently as last month, Solid Waste Authority managers said the landfill off of Jog Road, just north of 45th Street, would run out of room in 2024.

Commissioners were considered purchasing land west of 20-Mile Bend for a new landfill, but dropped the idea Oct. 7. They hoped instead to save their money by swapping land they already had for land owned by the South Florida Water Management District that was more suitable.

The water district is poised to purchase 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. for Everglades restoration. But since much of that land may not be needed for restoration, commissioners said they would explore trading for some of that land.

The authority owns 1,600 acres next to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, the northernmost remnant of the Everglades. It once planned to build a landfill on the property, but county commissioners agreed in 2007 to pursue alternate locations. The decision came after environmentalists objected to the site.

Marcus said she still hopes to swap the authority's site with the district, but there is no longer a pressing need to finalize the deal, since plans for a new waste-to-energy plant will buy time.

"We have time right now," Marcus said. "A lot of time, as opposed to the push we were under."

A consultant working for the authority told county commissioners on Wednesday that the county won't need a new landfill until 2045 if it builds a plant that can burn 3,000 tons of trash a day, Marcus said.

The unit creates energy as it burns the trash. The energy can be sold by the authority.

The new facility would almost eliminate the need to put unburned or unprocessed trash in the landfill, Pellowitz said.