Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 09-25-1990 Regular — reading text

not take away any of the salaries or the COLA from the employees; because of the high morale of the employees. if this is taken away. the morale will plummet through to the acquifer. He does not believe we need that.  25 9- 25- 90 NORBERT T. KLENK Norbert Klenk, 107 Marilyn Avenue, came before Council to ask that a Resolution be sent to the County Commissioners to show support for the opposition to the proposed building of a medical waste incinerator. He stated he realizes this is a County problem, but this will directly affect the City of Fort Walton Beach one the I way or another if this is passed. According to application from Mr. G. T. T. Williams of the G. Williams Company. it has been proposed to burn 500 pounds an hour of medical waste; this equates to 360, 000 pounds per month or 180, 000 tons of medical waste being burned. Our area alone produces nearly 5. 000 pounds a month from the local hospitals and Eglin Air Force. He stated he feels there is no need for the incinerator; in fact, no one has requested one. With the incinerator. it means there will be 180. 000 tons of medical waste a month that will be shipped into a our area, which is massive amount of being shipped waste here compared to what is generated locally. Plans are to have the disposal on- site, based on the application, it reads personal waste dump; this means Mr. Williams will have a pit on site to bury the waste. Mr. Klenk said he talked with a lot of people, this scares them and they are adamantly opposed to the incinerator. Mr. Maney asked if all that is necessary for the County to stop it is not to issue a permit. Mr. Klenk replied the County has no grounds to stop this because the zoning laws in that area permit incinerators. Mr. deVaux asked if there has to be DER and EPA approval to burn. Mr. Klenk stated DER has approved this based upon the application from Mr. Williams; DER inspected and approved the site, approved the concept and, according to the report from DER, stated there were no residential areas in the immediate area. Mr. Maney asked how close the residents are to the area. Mr. Klenk replied he believed the Fort Walton Extended Care Facility is approximately 2 to 2 1/ 2 blocks, residential areas approximately three blocks, and there are nine sub- divisions going in within a mile from the site. The problem is no one knows how much is really going to be burned; will it be up to the capacity or less. He stated if only 5. 000 pounds a month were going to be burned to take of the local medical waste, that I care would not be too difficult; but when there is going to be shipments coming in of excess of 300, 000 pounds a month. that is a lot. Mr. Maney wanted to know if there have been any studies made as to the wind concept, how far the ash will fly. Mr. Klenk stated there have been no impact statements or investigations done. The County has been working on looking at different avenues to try and stop the incinerator from coming into the area for the last month or so; the other Councils, Mary Esther. Niceville. Shalimar. and Destin are all looking at this. This is a matter everyone is interested in. 26 9- 25- 90 KLENK ( CONT.) Mr. Rosenbaum stated the incinerator at Humana Hospital is a 300 pound capacity which gives them an inordinate problem; they do not utilize the 300 pounds to its extent so they take medical waste in from a couple of surgeons in the area. In other words, right now they are not burning the incinerator at a 300 pound a day capacity, just from the hospitals. Mr. Maney moved that a Resolution be prepared regarding the medical waste incinerator. Motion was seconded by Mr. Rosenbaum. Mr. Nicholson stated if a Resolution is going to be prepared and sent to another City government. information should be provided from both sides. Mr. deVaux wanted to know if the Resolution will state that particular incinerator at that particular site. or will it state Council does not want any type of incinerator in the area. Mr. Smith felt Mr. Klenk has brought to the attention of Council a warning that the situation needs to be looked at to prevent that type of burning coming into the City. The Mayor thought part of the Resolution. if it is prepared, needs to address the fact that Council knows the state has given the County charge of solid waste in Okaloosa, as mandated to the state; the whole solid waste picture in the County will be looked at. We are at the end of the first year with the contrac t they have with Environmental Waste, but they keep telling us there is going to be a Task Force to look at the entire picture. Mr. Smith stated the County has come to the RUA. which addresses sewer. water and garbage. The County suggests to the RUA to look at this situation because of the location of the three Counties. i. e.. Santa Rosa.