The Solid Waste Management Plan Steering Committee met Sept. 7 during the Marion County Board of Supervisors meeting to give details on the county's Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) update.
The county has a grant to pay for most of the update through the Department of Environmental Quality. The committee is made up of the board, Columbia Mayor Justin McKenzie and the project engineers.
The original Solid Waste Planning Act from 1991 says a plan needs to be updated every 10 years or so. It's been 30 since the one in Marion County has been updated. The law sets up the county as being responsible for the plan, and the city falls under that plan. Therefore, the committee must make sure to include what the city is doing.
Solid waste management is the collecting, storing, treating and disposing of solid material that is discarded because it has served its purpose or is no longer useful. The goal of a waste management plan is to reduce the amount of solid waste destined for disposal by preventing its creation and increasing reuse, recycling, composting and other organic material recycling methods. A well-written SWMP can support proposals for solid waste management grants, while increasing sanitary conditions in the county and city.
"The statewide goal is 25% for recycling. Most counties do not even come close to this, but Marion is doing well," Ken Ruckstuhl, an environmental engineer with Environmental Management Services, said.
Columbia has a recycling center open Fridays and Saturdays on Old Foxworth Road. There are days when only one car goes through in a day and sometimes 50 go through. Every Thursday, the city gets cardboard from street containers. The only revenue the city gets from recycling is from aluminum cans and cardboard. The cost to the city is getting rid of plastics.
"Since the closure of the city dump to the public, the cost to dispose of rubbish at MC Environmental at 971 Columbia-Purvis Rd. is cheaper than it was," County Engineer Jeff Dungan said. "It's just as easy to get to. We just need to publicize it. There is no public rubbish dump now. There is no curbside collection of rubbish in county, but there is in the city, which is not unusual. Greg Prine at MC Environmental has approval for composting that will help toward recycling."
Prine started trying to get permits two years ago so he could be a benefit to Marion County and the City of Columbia.
"Without the city and county's support, we would not be here. I am proud of our establishment and where we are so far," Prine said. "DEQ requires a company to show there is a need and to show that the land will be suitable for use, which means it has to have a natural clay liner. The process is very lengthy."
MC Environmental accepts class one rubbish, which includes construction debris but no liquids, tires, paint, oil or hazardous materials, and class two rubbish (composting station), which includes limbs, trees, vegetation leaves and any other natural, unprocessed materials. It does recycle any metals that come into the dump, which includes old appliances.
It is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The dump charge is $9.
The committee has a timeline for completion of the SWMP. It is 90% through with gathering information on the project, which was initiated in March 2022. A draft of the plan must be submitted to the DEQ in December. In April 2023, the final draft must be submitted to the Board of Supervisors for approval. A 30-day public comment period and notification of adjacent counties must be published twice in the newspaper and held in May 2023. Those public hearings will be used to finalize the SWMP that will be ratified in June 2023 by the board and sent to the MDEQ for review.
The board agreed that the public should have time to express concerns and ideas prior to the draft of the SWMP and will hold meetings on Oct. 4 and Nov. 1, 2022 at 10 a.m.
One event that is set forth in the SWMP is for occasional Hazardous Waste Disposal Days to be held. The county has scheduled its next one for Oct. 1, and the approximate cost of $39,000 will be funded primarily by the DEQ grant. The event will be held at the Marion County Transfer Station on Mississippi 586 in Foxworth.
