‘Once-in-a-generation decision’: Montgomery County Council to vote on trash incinerator’s future

Montgomery County on Tuesday should get an answer on the future of its long-debated trash incinerator.

The County Council will vote on whether to close or renovate the aging Dickerson facility, council President Natali Fani-González announced Wednesday. She called it a “once-in-a-generation” decision.

The vote would fulfill her promise to resolve the controversy surrounding the incinerator, which County Executive Marc Elrich vowed to close nearly a decade ago.

“I am thrilled,” Fani-González said. “I want this to be over.”

Environmentalists have argued that the incinerator, which converts waste to ash and has racked up toxic emissions violations, is harmful to the environment and residents’ health.

Council members will pick one of two resolutions. One would modernize the incinerator and keep it running “for the long term.” The other would close it and have the county’s trash trucked to an out-of-county landfill.

The resolution to close the incinerator does not specify when that would happen. If the council votes for closure, it will have to make additional decisions about the timeline, Fani-González said.

If the council votes for renovation, it will have to decide about the timeline for improvements and how long to extend the contract with Reworld, the company that runs the incinerator. That contract expires in 2031.

Most council members have kept their opinions on what should happen to the incinerator close to the vest. At a meeting on the issue in September, several said they wanted to close it but appeared unenthusiastic about alternatives.

Incoming County Executive Will Jawando, who was elected Tuesday, has made his views clear.

“I support closing the Dickerson trash incinerator and committing to a firm timeline to get it done,” he wrote in The Banner’s election guide. “We owe it to the residents of the Dickerson area who have borne the burden of this facility for three decades, and we owe it to our climate goals.”

This year, Elrich presented options for closing the incinerator as the council hammered out a budget. But Fani-González decided the council should deal with the issue separately and consider options other than those presented by Elrich.

The choices

Fani-González said in her newsletter this week that the council will choose between two resolutions that were introduced Oct. 27. Due to the nature of waste disposal contracts, council members won’t legislate a solution. Unlike legislation, resolutions do not have sponsors.

Both resolutions express the council’s desire for an in-county food-waste composting facility.

Council members Sidney Katz, Dawn Luedtke and Laurie-Anne Sayles have held town halls for residents to weigh in on the future of the incinerator.

Community members are divided.

Many residents, particularly those who live near the incinerator, have for years lobbied the county to find a different solution for its trash.

The Sugarloaf Citizens Association, which represents residents of the Dickerson neighborhood and has spearheaded the campaign to close the incinerator, has asked the council to shutter it by June.

“These actions will dramatically reduce the harmful emissions released in our air and the risk of contamination from future breakdowns at the facility,” SCA leaders wrote in an Oct. 23 blog post. “It will also end the shameful 30-year practice of dumping the toxic ash the incinerator produces (after burning) on a minority community in Virginia.”

Currently, that ash is hauled to a landfill in Henrico County, Virginia. County officials have said they would look at an alternative landfill location but have not shared specifics.

Others are concerned a shift away from the incinerator will require more reliance on landfills and lead to more noise, odors and garbage truck traffic through neighborhoods.

A resident of the Farmstead neighborhood in Rockville who participated in a September town hall said she already endures the smell of the Shady Grove transfer station, where trash is hauled before heading to landfills, and feels as if she lives “in a trash can.”

Another attendee who lives near the transfer station encouraged the council to find other options.

“We already have odors, smells, truck traffic,” she said.

Fani-González said residents may weigh in on the future of the incinerator through a feedback form on the council website.