Proposed Transfer Station Questions

Waste Transfer Station Workgroup

Panelists Questions For Fact Finding Proceeding

In what ways do the operations at a waste transfer stations impact you?

In what ways do trucks transporting waste to waste transfer station impact you?

What has been your observation regarding the manner that waste transfer stations operate in your neighborhood?

How many waste transfer stations exist in your neighborhood and how close are they to your place of residence?

Are there facilities that process waste, such as recycling facilities, in your neighborhood? If so, how are they regulated.

What has been your experience in the regulatory process with respect to addressing the issues of siting and operation of waste transfer stations?

What has been your experience regarding the way that the impact of other facilities, including other waste transfer stations, in your neighborhood have been considered in the regulatory process?

What has been the consequence of the siting of waste transfer stations on the neighborhood? (Such as the impacts on economic development, residential uses, open space)

What techniques would you recommend to reduce the impacts from operation of existing waste transfer stations in your neighborhood?

What techniques would you recommend to reduce the impacts from the transport of waste to and from waste transfer stations?

What techniques would your recommend to prevent clustering of waste transfer stations?

What regulatory changes would you recommend to address the impacts from the operation of waste transfer stations?

What regulatory changes would you recommend to prevent clustering of waste transfer stations?

What regulatory changes would your recommend to prevent the disproportionate siting of waste transfer stations in poor and communities of color?

Questions for Regulatory Agencies and Technical Assistance Organizations:

What role does the transfer station play in the solid waste management plans for DC. How do the various jurisdictions in DC coordinate in this planning?

How much transfer station capacity do you need? Do you have it?

How are parcels of land designated as potential sites for transfer stations? How do the various jurisdictions coordinate? What are the routing considerations?

What public participation is afforded in this selection process? In the zoning process?

What regulatory authority do you have over transfer stations? Over traffic patterns affected by transfer stations?

How are facility hours of operation set?

What standards exist for the siting and operation of waste transfer stations?

In assessing the impacts from a proposed waste transfer stations how are the following considered:

1. improper traffic patterns,
2. sewage discharges
3. noises,
4. odors,
5. discharge into the public air, of diesel fuel particulates, airborne microbes, dusts, allergens, formation of carbon monoxide, ozone and other gases,
6. disease carrying vectors such as birds, rats, cats, opposums, etc.being brought to and attracted to the site and concentrating in the neighborhood
7. synergistic and concentrated effects coming multiple waste transfer stations in proximity each other or to similarly impacting uses

What is the Best Available Control Site Selection, Design and Technology to do the following:

1. Avoid dispersing pollutants into the public air, including diesel fuel
2. particulates, carbon monoxide, othere gases, airborne microbes, dusts, etc.
3. Avoid discharging pollutants into the public sewers
4. Avoid creating breeding sites in discharge sewers for bacteria immune to current medicines
5. Avoid collecting any hazardous waste in the waste stream at a transfer station.
6. Protect the transfer station neighbors from explosions and fires in the waste at the transfer stations.
7. Avoid spills of hydraulic fluid, fuel and other liquids from trucks and machinery at transfer stations.
8. Contain and collect such spills.
9. Assure that the transfer station has adequate space to do all of the necessary supporting work needed now and in the future to handle the trucks'parking, maneuvering, fueling, weighing, cleaning, repair, storage as well as all of the other activities at the transfer station.
10. Detecting and immediately controlling nuisances associated with the transfer station.

How is illegal dumping addressed in solid waste management planning?

What is the relationship between recycling and transfer stations?

How can you respond to the clustering issue? If you attempted to thin out a clustered area, what principles would guide you (timing of permit application, operating history, design components?

What problems are posed by use of Marine Transfer Terminals in the export of solid waste?

How has DC's Solid Waste Management Plan considered the export of solid waste?

How has DC Solid Waste Management Plan considered the current circumstances of waste transfer stations being clustered in certain communities?

What measure have your agency implemented to assess and reduce the impacts from such clustering?

What efforts have been made to develop a regional government plan thatlimits the number and location of garbage and trash transfer stations serving

Washington, DC and the suburbs surrounding it?

Does the Comprehensive Plan for the District of Columbia provide any environmental justice guidelines which control the location of handling the private and public waste stream?

What studies are you aware of which measure and distinguish the health risks human populations face when more than one proximate source of offensive airborne pollutants is mixing its pollutants with the airborne pollutants of another source, etc.?

What criteria should be applied to assess whether Waste Management Plans adequately address adverse impacts and environmental injustice caused by plans to or activities that operate garbage and trash transfer stations?

Does the District of Columbia government have the authority to control the siting of waste transfer stations, including their prohibition in certain locations, based on public health and environmental impact?

What regional and national solid waste and recycling policy should EPA pursue to make a dramatic change in the economic attractiveness that is causing a population explosion of garbage and trash transfer stations?

How should the regional impacts associated with the local and long-range transport of solid waste, included transportation and economic impacts, be considered in solid waste management plans?

How should the waste reduction strategies and importation of solid waste be considered in solid waste management plans?

What is your role in determining the regulatory standards applicable to transfer stations?

What is your role in transfer station siting?

Which agency enforces transfer station regulations? What staff is available?

How is the public involved in facility siting and concerns about operations? How do you respond to citizen concerns?

What measures would you recommend to prevent the clustering of waste transfer stations in the future?

What are differences in impact between marine transfer terminals and land-based transfer stations?

In considering other waste transfer stations and other stationary and mobile sources in proximity to a proposed waste transfer stations, how should the impacts from those facilities be considered in an environmental impact assessment and permits for the proposed facility? In other words, how should cumulative impacts from proximate facilities be considered in the permitting and environmental review of a proposed waste transfer facility?

How are the emissions of trucks during the time of delivering or picking-up solid waste at waste transfer station considered in air permit calculations performed by the company?

What is your role in Solid Waste Management Plans?

How do consider issues of environmental impact and public health in reviewing Solid Waste Management Plans?

What role do think the federal agencies should play in addressing the impacts from solid waste facilities?

How does your agency examine the potential impacts to populations protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights in environmental decisions? When does this occur?

Why are transfer stations needed?

How do you choose where to locate a transfer station? What kind of approvals are needed?

What regulatory standards apply to your facilities? Do they reflect best practices? Do you feel they are uniformly enforced at all facilities operating as transfer stations? What standards apply to the transportation associated with transfer stations (truck, rail and barge)? What considerations lead you to prefer one mode of transportation over another?

Do you feel there are any regulatory loopholes that need to be filled? Is illegal dumping a problem?

Should transfer station regulation be a matter of local standards, or would a uniform federal baseline be useful?

What efforts do you undertake to respond to community concerns?

How do you consider proximity to other uses, such as residential uses, in the siting of a waste transfer stations?

How should proximity to other uses, such as residential uses, be considered in the siting of a waste transfer operation?

How do you consider proximity to other uses, such as residential uses, in the transportation mode and route used for the transportation of solid waste?

How should proximity to other uses, such as residential uses, in the selection of transportation mode and route for the transportation of solid waste?

What mechanisms do you currently have in place to capture and treat air emissions from waste transfer stations?

What type of air emission are captured?

How are the emissions of trucks during the time of delivering or picking-up solid waste at waste transfer station considered in air permit calculations performed by the company?

What measure could be used to capture and treat emissions from trucks during the time that they are processing waste at waste transfer stations?

What truck technologies can be used in the transport of waste to reduce air emissions, fugitive dust, and odors?

What technologies can be used in waste transfer stations to reduce air emissions, fugitive dust and odors?

What measures would you recommend to reduce the impact from current circumstance of the clustering of waste transfer stations in certain communities?

What measures would you recommend to prevent the clustering of waste transfer stations in the future?

In considering other waste transfer stations and other stationary and mobile sources in proximity to a proposed waste transfer stations, how should the impacts from those facilities be considered in an environmental impact assessment and permits for the proposed facility?

What technologies exist for using marine transfer terminals for the export of solid waste?

What impediments exist for using marine transfer terminals for the export of solid waste?

What are differences in impact between marine transfer terminals and land-based transfer stations?

Is retrofitting existing marine transfer terminals viable?

What are the cost considerations in retrofitting marine transfer terminals for long-range solid waste export?

In selecting a site for a facility, what are your considerations?

How do you look at the demographics of communities among potential sites?

How do you look at the environmental conditions of communities potential sites?
In assessing the impacts from a proposed waste transfer stations how are the following considered:

1. improper traffic patterns,
2. sewage discharges
3. noises,
4. odors,
5. discharge into the public air, of diesel fuel particulates, airborne microbes, dusts, allergens, formation of carbon monoxide, ozone and other gases,
6. disease carrying vectors such as birds, rats, cats, opposums, etc.being brought to and attracted to the site and concentrating in the neighborhood
7. synergistic and concentrated effects coming multiple waste transfer stations in proximity each other or to similarly impacting uses.

What is the Best Available Control Site Selection, Design and Technology to do the following:

1. Avoid dispersing pollutants into the public air, including diesel fuel particulates, carbon monoxide, othere gases, airborne microbes, dusts, etc.
2. Avoid discharging pollutants into the public sewers
3. Avoid creating breeding sites in discharge sewers for bacteria immune to current medicines
4. Avoid collecting any hazardous waste in the waste stream at a transfer station.
5. Protect the transfer station neighbors from explosions and fires in the waste at the transfer stations.
6. Avoid spills of hydraulic fluid, fuel and other liquids from trucks and machinery at transfer stations.
7. Contain and collect such spills.
8. Assure that the transfer station has adequate space to do all of the necessary supporting work needed now and in the future to handle the trucks' parking, maneuvering, fueling, weighing, cleaning, repair, storage as well as all of the other activities at the transfer station.
9. Detecting and immediately controlling nuisances associated with the transfer station.