To the Editor:

An article in last week’s Gazette (“Green Energy or a Closed Landfill”) seemed to miss the purpose of EnviroSolutions’ (ESI) request for a Special Exception Amendment, which is to substantially expand the capacity of the Lorton construction and demolition debris (CDD) landfill and extend operations for 22 years.

The Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations’ Environment and Recreation Committee, which I chair, was asked to review this application by ESI’s representative, Conrad Mehan. We worked closely with colleagues in the South County Federation (which opposes the SEA request) and with ESI, and conducted our own research to understand this complex and contentious case. Majorities of MVCCA Environment and Recreation and Planning and Zoning Committees voted to support a resolution opposing ESI’s request, which was adopted by the full Council on Feb. 26 (see www.mvcca.org/Resolutions/res-J-2014-01.pdf ).

The citizens of the Mount Vernon district support efforts to reduce dependence on energy sources that generate greenhouse gases, and would welcome responsible renewable energy projects. This is not a responsible renewable energy project.

In addition to other impacts on air and water quality, landfills generate methane, an air pollutant 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. If the landfill’s capacity is expanded and filled, methane will continue to be created many decades after closure in 2040. (ESI’s models show methane production continuing at least until 2060, even if the landfill closes Jan. 1, 2019, as currently planned.) The methane collection proposed as part of the Green Energy Park would leave 25 percent to escape into the atmosphere, according to ESI’s feasibility study. Recycling a large fraction of the debris would avoid creating methane in the first place, and is a far more environmentally friendly approach than a few wind turbines atop a methane-generating dump. Fairfax County’s Solid Waste Management Plan advocates source reduction, reuse, and recycling over landfilling, the county’s least preferred method of waste management.

Expanding capacity at the Lorton CDD landfill is not supported by the analysis of its costs and benefits that is required by Fairfax County’s Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan instructs, “Prior to the expansion of the Energy/Resource Recovery Facility or other waste management facilities, comprehensively consider the costs, benefits and effects of other alternatives including recycling and waste reduction for the protection of the public health, public safety, the environment, and natural resources” (Public Facilities Objective 34, Policy b).

Without an analysis of the environmental, economic, or public health costs and benefits of expanding the Lorton landfill, it’s impossible to know if there is a need for additional CDD landfill capacity within Fairfax County. The county staff report on this application did not do the analysis, but concluded that “the benefits of continued operation of the landfill in the county are very difficult to quantify.” In January 2012, the Northern Virginia Waste Management Board reported six CDD landfills and 15 CDD recycling/recovery facilities operating in the region, suggesting there may already be adequate CDD disposal available without expansion of the Lorton CDD landfill.

Finally, there has been no evaluation of the effects of expanding capacity at the Lorton landfill on the rate and economic viability of CDD recycling, the county’s preferred and a far more environmentally benign method of waste management.

A recent independent study (More Jobs, Less Pollution: Growing the Recycling Economy in the U.S.) estimates that by following best practices, 75 percent of CDD could be recycled nationally by 2030. Massachusetts achieved an 80 percent CDD recycling rate in 2010. Locally, a certified CDD recycling facility recovers and recycles 68 percent of construction debris, sends burnable residuals to the Covanta Energy/Resource Recovery Facility and the remainder to a landfill, according to data reported to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). In contrast, the Lorton landfill recycled less than half a percent and landfilled the other 99.53 percent in 2012, according to data the facility reported to the DEQ. Most of the 1,029,823 tons of CDD debris arriving at the landfill that year came from out-of-state (37 percent from Maryland and 18 percent from D.C.) and would best be recycled nearer the source, reducing vehicle emissions and improving air quality. Southern Fairfax County does not need to be the New Jersey of the mid-Atlantic, attracting landfill debris from far and wide.

The environmental benefits of this project are more than offset by its environmental harms (for other environmental harms, see www.mvcca.org/Resolutions/res-J-2014-01.pdf). That is why the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations voted to oppose ESI’s request to expand the landfill and operate it until 2040.

Betsy Martin

Alexandria