Title
Environmental Services Business & Operation Updates
...Suggested Motion
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Body
Environmental Services operates as an enterprise fund. The Eco Station operates seven days per week and provides residential and commercial trash and recycle collection. The ESB is routinely provided with updates regarding business and operations.
1. Household Hazardous Waste is accepted on Friday and Saturday from 9am to 3pm. The County’s safety officer asked that HHW materials/chemicals are no longer opened as a means to reduce risk to the County and to our employees. Our employees would open chemicals to test for pH and separate as necessary. This is no longer allowed. As a result, bulking materials is also no longer allowed. This change in operations will cause an overall increase to the program as loose packed materials is more expensive than bulking. We are continuing to research cost saving solutions. From a customer stand point the only impact is we can no longer bulk their old gasoline. The gas needs to be in disposable, leak proof container.
2. NMED Solid Waste Bureau conducted their annual inspection of the Eco Station and noted that the overall operation was compliant and gave good remarks about the overall operation. However, one area that needed to be addressed was fire breaks between brush, mulch and pallet piles. We have corrected the issue and made adequate fire breaks between piles.
3. The Eco Station transfer station ventilation system is inadequately sized and a design for an upgraded system was completed in FY19. We received one bid response that was $100K over bid. We are looking at the State Price agreement as an alternative means to move forward with the construction of the ventilation system.
4. The Eco Station has had issues with theft in the past. As part of the FY20 budget, a camera system will be installed as a means to increase overall security of the site.
5. Environmental Services Division was featured in Resource Recycling Magazine - Augu...
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