Quick background: Montgomery County diverts our solid waste to the Resource Recovery Facility (incinerator) in Dickerson, northwest of Poolesvile. The unwanted furniture you toss into the waste bins at the Shady Grove Transfer Station meets its fiery end in Dickerson.
Testing indicates that toxic materials are leaking from the incinerator, and the ash accumulated after incineration is being deposited across the Potomac near a predominantly black residential area. Clearly, remediation is urgent and necessary.
The options considered are a) upgrading the incinerator, b) closing the incinerator and transporting the waste to distant landfills, or c) installing advanced solid waste processing systems similar to those in San Jose, CA. The policy jocks among us should look at the exemplary report Municipal Solid Waste Management System for background and analysis.
As of November 10, the County Council decided to keep the incinerator in operation and pursue upgrades estimated at $365 million.
Three observations.
First, this issue proves once again that social justice and racial equity are a matter of convenience, not principle. Depositing toxic ash near a black neighborhood is just like denying black students a charter school, just like red-lining MCPS, and just like zoning. For every hour Kristin Mink spends chasing after ICE agents, how many hours is she addressing discrimination that her county council sanctions?
Second, upgrading the facility to $365 million is chump change. At $3.7 billion, our bloated and mismanaged school district consumes almost ten times that amount every year. Cutting MCPS’s budget by 10% for one year will give us a clean incinerator for decades to come.
Third, the county government does not need to haul residential waste from single-family detached homes, which is a perfect example of socialism for the rich. Go to any shopping mall (if any are still around), strip mall, or apartment building. There you see dumpsters of all shapes and sizes being hauled off by private disposal companies. Similarly, Fairfax County has been out of the residential solid waste business for quite some time, and requires residents to contract with private collection providers.
A county government so controlling that it monopolizes trash collection is a county that dumps toxic ash in black residential neighborhoods. Privatizing trash collection, and many more county monopolies, is the true path to social justice, racial equity, and fiscal discipline.
