Frederick County wants to partner with Carroll to build a $320 million incinerator the two counties would use to burn ever-growing mountains of garbage.
Carroll commissioners are expected to decide over the next six weeks if they will join Frederick and invest in the incinerator, which would take five years to build and would burn 1,500 tons of garbage a day.
Frederick County commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to partner with Carroll to build the state?s fourth waste-to-energy incinerator, with Commissioner Kai Hagen dissenting.
But Carroll commissioners expressed concerns about possible health risks.
“I?m not yet convinced that it?s safe to do this,” said Commissioner Dean Minnich. “Before I go along with this, I need to see some more proof than I see right now.”
Commissioner Julia Gouge, who has supported increased composting and recycling, also questioned the safety of the ash that the incinerator would generate.
But Robin Davidov, executive director of the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, a quasi-state organization the two counties have consulted, said ash from waste-to-energy incinerators is not toxic and is tested regularly.
Commissioner Michael Zimmer said it would make sense financially to partner with Frederick County because rising gas prices make it expensive to continue to truck most of Carroll?s garbage to landfills in Virginia.
“I still have an open mind,” Zimmer said. “The numbers that were put together on waste-to-energy make it an attractive option to partner with Frederick.”
About 50 residents attended the commissioners? meeting in Frederick, and nearly all opposed were to the incinerator.
Tom Davy, a cell phone tower manager from Frederick, disagreed with Frederick commissioners? decision because he feared that increased recycling ? which commissioners hope to accomplish with or without an incinerator ? would render the plant useless.
“How are you going to guarantee that this is going to burn enough trash on a daily basis?” Davy asked. “Are we going to be one of those counties importing trash because we don?t have enough to support our incinerator?”
