What a long, strange trip Sedgwick County’s solid-waste management has been. But is it over? As The Eagle recently reported, the county finally has ruled out the use of the Wichita-owned Furley site for a landfill, in part because of the increased risk of bird strikes in Raytheon’s flight path. The idea of building elsewhere in the county appears to be off the table, too, not only because of the legal fight it would invite with neighbors but because a publicly owned local landfill no longer makes sense: Most of the county’s trash now goes to Waste Connections’ own landfill in nearby Harper County. But this means, as our editorial Friday argued, that Wichita is now stuck with the Furley acreage, and “Harper County is stuck with most of our trash. Wichitans pay far more and get far less for trash service than residents of comparable cities, because City Hall has refused to franchise trash service. And Sedgwick County’s recycling rates are laughable — 9 percent compared with an average 18 percent statewide and 25 percent nationally.” Is this any way to manage solid waste?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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13 Comments
Apparantly so! But recycling doesn’t do much other than make the people who do recycle feel like they are doing something, but it doesn’t.
So at least we aren’t bee-essing the recycling issue. Our rates could be lower on trash service though.
Joe: I think you are on the wrong side of the recycling issue. I suggest you attend some of Margaret and Paul Millers’ “Recycling Coalition” meetings.
Their meetings are held in the large Methodist Church on East Douglas in the College Hill area. I think meetings are on first or second Monday or Tuesday of the month from noon to 1 PM. Take a sandwich.
To find out specifically when their meetings are scheduled, visit with Margaret Miller who volunteers at the round information desk in the lobby of the downtown library two or three mornings of the week. She is friendly and informative.
Lots of uses for recycled materials exist but it costs money to collect this stuff. This is a legitimate business that our local governments should be coordinating but they do very little.
In fact, the Recycling Coalition actually is conducting a modest recycling project themselves in a warehouse several blocks south of downtown Wichita using a lot of volunteer help.
Joe, my guess is if you would attend a few recycling meetings, you would become a major proponent of recycling for Wichita.
I wouldn’t trust Waste Connections any farther than you can throw their garbage.They are quickly monopolizing the entire state with the help of the state.Who’s pockets are they filling in Topeka?
Regarding a solid waste landfill for Sedgwick County trash, everyone who knows about this issue knows the Furley site was considered an excellent site for several reasons.
The Furley site is located some five or six miles north northeast of the Kansas Coliseum — I don’t have my map here right now — with good potential access from I-135.
Also the Furley site was somewhat distant from the Arkansas River and other running water tributaries. The type of clay subsoil in that site was considered excellent in respect to retarding drainage into underground acquifers,etc.
Of course, by dumping Wichita and Sedgwick County’s solid waste right here in Sedgwick County — Sedgwick County taxpayers would have saved bundles of money in the form of lower tipping fees and lower monthly trash collection costs.
Because our politicians waited too long to take action on the Furley site, the area started to develop with homes, etc. Of course those who moved to that area knew the site was being reserved for a landfill.
So, now a strawman has been erected — that is, the danger of high flying sparrows to aircraft that might be straying over that area.
Never mind that all aircraft flying into Mid-Continent Airport flew over the former landfill northwest of Wichita. That approach still flys over a lot of bird habitat in the water-filled sandpits in northwest Wichita.
Professional management of a Furley landfill site could effectively eliminate bird activity at the Furley site.
Regarding the Harper County Landfill, I was among many who contributed to the legal defense to stop this site from being developed as a landfill. This site has a sandy subsoil that will polute its tributary that flows into the beautiful always flowing Chikaskia River that in turn flows southeast towards Oklahoma and Tulsa. Within a few days, the contractor who installed the vaunted vinyl liner at this Harper County site punctured it.
Of course, from the point of view of Sedgwick County taxpayers, another income resource was lost.
Joe,
Apparently you haven’t been keeping up with what’s been going on in the recycle industry,
The last place I worked, we couldn’t get enough recycled plastic. Sawdust was at a premium. We used tons of both.
Rubber tires are being ground up and used in road coverings. Aluminum is also at a premium. Glass can and is remelted into a multitude of products.
Catch up, Joe, you might be surprised.
According to Joe our City leaders can do no wrong. As usual, both they and he are 100% wrong on this.
What a crock!
I used to work at Raytheon.
They are not concerned one whit about flight safety. Trust me on this.
They don’t want the proposed landfill because they happen to own real estate very close to it and a nearby landfill would devalue that land.
See the development going up at 13th and Webb?
Well that land and lake USED to belong to the Beech(now Raytheon) employees club. Just as the lake and land SOUTH of 13th still does. Mrs. Beech guranteed that land in perpetuity to the employees club.
A few years ago, and after the DEATH of Mrs. Beech, the employess club had financial difficulties. A particularly nasty highly placed Beech/Raytheon official took advantage of this. The land north of 13th was bought off for a song from the employees club and then SOLD to developers.
The Beech’s also owned extensive tracts of land along Greenwitch Rd. north of 13th. These now belong to Raytheon as well.
Given the development in that area of town, it is little surprise Raytheon would not want a landfill in the vicinity. Aircraft safety my ass. They are holding on as long as they can while the value of that property goes up and up.
What happened to the new eminent domain laws? I say the county should condemn that land and use it for the needed landfill.
OK, here’s my plan. I expect that some of the tree huggers will not think that it’s too cool, but I’m hoping that the more you think about it, the more you will like it. So far, I haven’t heard a single person voice this one publicly (probably for PC reasons) ‚Äì although I have mentioned it to a few locals.
No one wants a landfill anywhere near where they live and they certainly don’t want one upstream of their location. Shipping trash to far-off locations is cost-prohibitive. So what everyone in the Mississippi River watershed needs to do is load all of their landfill onto barges and send them down to New Orleans to fill in all of their low areas to the point that there would no longer be a danger of flooding from hurricanes.
Imagine how much trash could be deposited! It could take years to fill. When completed, the land could be used as park land and could possibly be farmed for non-consumable products such as, oil and sugar-producing plants (bio-diesel/ethanol), hemp, etc. ;)
Think about this for a while before you “just say no”. Do you want to see a repeat of what we have just seen in New Orleans sometime in the future, on a larger scale, or would you rather have a good, economic place to deposit your trash?
PS to JM: The last that I had heard, even though the used tires in the road surface initially sounded like a pretty slick idea, it got canned when entire stretches of road would catch fire from flaming vehicle wrecks. (Tires are 60% petroleum.)
Wow, the city/county bowed to the wishes of an aircraft manufacturer.
That’s astonishing.
NO JIVE!Used tires are still used on roads at a rate of 20% ground rubber to asphalt. There has never been a problem with fires on roads using ground up tires. The tires are also used on playground mats, sidewalks in northern calif,as a surfaceing for trailer beds (hauling kind) among other things.
The market for used tires, if utilized to it’s fullest, could use every used tire in the states.
I didn’t expect this much interest in landfills.
JR: You suggested using eminent domain. Actually I believe the city or county, I can’t recall which, already acquired the Furley site several years ago.
Furley is two miles north of the Kansas Coliseum and about 5 or 6 miles east of I-135. It is only a couple miles south of the Harvey County/Sedgwick County line.
Looks like our Sedgwick County Commissioners waited too long to make a decision about building it.
Thanks the info Jwink. I did not know really where the site in question was. And you are right of course that the land is already publicly owned.
That said.
Now this is even MORE confusing! I had assumed the site in question was close enough to Raytheon and its land holdings to be a threat to their real estate value. Since to claim a bird threat to aviation safety anywhere outside of a mile from the strip is ludicrous.
But the location Jwink describes is so far north and west of Ratheon that claiming a threat from bird strikes to aircraft is beyond comprehension!
I still say it is real estate related. I’ve less a case now, but Raytheons case is even weaker.
NOJIVE – have you considered the effects of toxic leachate from the hazardous waste that is inevitably commingled with MSW?