Waste not a chance to do the good by waiting for perfect

     I have always had respect and admiration for those who strive to protect the environment and reduce wasted resources, going back to when I was a kid.
     So it is with regret that I see that the county government has given Waste NOT Carroll what they want, instead of what the county needs, now and for the future.
     After months and months, meetings after meetings, including many public sessions and forums, Carroll County government joined Frederick County several years ago to participate in the planning, construction and operational policies of a waste to energy plant. It would be built in Frederick County to serve the two counties, and additional clients as approved by the principals.
     The plant design was based on the latest technologies widely in use in Europe, and would advance the ideals of reducing and reusing waste -- recycling it -- by turning it into electrical power.
     Educated, well-trained people visited the European plants to see first hand how efficient and environmentally feasible the latest waste to energy technology is. Staff, professional advisers and elected officials from both Frederick and Carroll Counties visited plants in this country to see, hear and attempt to smell waste to energy plants at peak hours.
     There was no smoke, odors or noise, and scrubbers effectively removed any particulates or chemical pollution to levels far below what is considered dangerous to health. The costs are high, but compared to the costs of current methods of collecting, sorting, treating or land filling trash, reasonable.
     Waste to energy makes sense environmentally, especially as a bridge for the 40 years or so that it will take newer technologies to become viable. It makes sense financially.
     But all the information and all the facts in the world are no match for emotional zeal and the heady rush of a populist movement. For so many years, American lovers of the environment have been ignored by big business and big government, and so the disciples of the earth have become entrenched in their beliefs -- even when the facts have changed, and the old paradigms they champion so fervently have shifted to irrelevance.
     I fear the fight to defeat the waste to energy plant is a case of well-intentioned people forgetting that it is, indeed, about the best course for the environment, and the lives in it, and not about winning a political or populist argument. Especially an argument that does not hold water.
     When the county announced it will withdraw from the contract with Frederick County, a leader in the Waste NOT ranks was quoted as saying something like, "Maybe we can come up with a better way of dealing with waste."
     We are well past the time for idealistic slogans and hoping. It's time to get something done.
     We were on the way. Well-intentioned people spent a lot of time and effort seeking a better way, and examined in great detail -- more diligently and open minded than environmental absolutists -- the current and emerging technology and costs for handling the waste that a growing population creates.
     We had made great strides in recovering, reusing, reducing and recycling waste, and there is more to be done.
     It takes half the time to shut down the contracts that the county counts on now to have other areas accept what's left when we have reduced the flow we have today.
     If you're going to presume a role of leadership, you should have a ready answer for the questions: What are you going to do when you can't truck it to another state? How long can you use current landfill space? When that's filled, how long will it take to find, permit, and develop another landfill in the county?
     That last answer is easy; there will be no more landfills in Carroll County, ever. What we see is what we get, and when that runs out, we will have to hope that Frederick County will let us in, if there is room, to use the facility we could have retained some control over.
     Bottom line is this: The opponents to the waste to energy plant have not won; they lost. The plant will still be built, but Carroll leaders will have no say in design, safety, overview.
     Carroll County was on the way to solving, not in a perfect way, but in the best way practicable, waste management issues for many years to come.
     The opponents have ideals, but no solutions to those continuing problems.