OCEAN CITY — Despite concerns raised by residents and threats of boycotts from some outside sources, resort officials this week approved a renewal of the town’s contract with a waste-to-energy company to dispose of the tons of trash generated in the town.
In 2012, the town abandoned its traditional curbside recycling program in favor of transporting the tons of trash collected to Covanta, a waste-to-energy incineration facility in Chester, Pa. The town’s public works department collects trash from residential and commercial sources each day and transports it to the solid waste facility at 65th Street, where it is loaded onto tractor-trailers and sent to Covanta near Philadelphia.
At the Covanta facility, the town’s trash is incinerated, and the steam produced during the process is used to turn turbines that produce renewable energy. The byproduct of the waste-to-energy method at Covanta is strictly regulated by federal and state agencies and scrubbers are used to eliminate or at least reduce the impact of the emissions on the communities surrounding the plant.
On Monday, the Mayor and Council had before them a renewal of the contract with Covanta, which is currently set to expire on Dec. 31. The negotiated renewal calls for a two-year contract with Covanta, with a series of three one-year extensions. City Manager Doug Miller explained the contract renewal was carefully renegotiated and Covanta returned its signed copy late last week. Miller said it was now up to the Mayor and Council to decide to renew the contract and authorize him to sign the renewal.
Back in 2012, the town entered a contract with Covanta to accept our municipal solid waste at the waste-to energy facility. Initially, it was two contracts, one with Covanta, and one with a hauler, but the contracts were later combined. The contract up for renewal on Monday was a single-source contract for the hauling and waste disposal.