SWEC, Among Others

For much of the last few months I've been working six and seven days a week, and have not had a chance to do what I had done in the past – attend meetings of committees of which I was not a member. I think it's essential to the training of any Board member (although not many others do) as most of the detail work of the Board is discussed, debated and voted on in Committee. The Administration Committee is most instructive, as many if not most proposals have to be approved by Admin after being approved in the home Committee. Admin meetings are usually long, but very instructive.

I'm especially looking forward to returning to Solid Waste/Environmental Concerns (SWEC) Committee meetings in the fall, when my schedule loosens up a bit. SWEC oversees, and makes decisions about, most of the environmental policy that the County has authority over. It oversees the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District which, despite its name, is a state agency partly supported by the county's budget. The Soil and Water folks are always doing things that interest me, including stream bank management (you probably know I live right on Oneonta Creek), hydroseeding, agricultural plastic recycling, and lots more. Hopefully, I'll have more detailed reports later on. Last fall, I participated in an all-day tour of Otsego County farms put on by S&W, looking at waste management projects that improve overall production while reducing the organic wastes that run into our streams and rivers. There's another one scheduled this fall.

SWEC is also still working on the solar project I reported on last year; the sticking point has been location. We need about ten clear acres which is reasonably near an appropriate power line, and that last part is the problem. The solar project will, to oversimplify, be selling power to the NYSEG grid, and it seems that NYSEG really doesn't want it (as you'd expect, they'd rather we bought our power from them). They have, apparently, been less than totally cooperative. But there are real physical constraints, and we haven't yet found a location that meets all the requirements.

SWEC has also spun off a 3R Task Force (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) which I am part of.  It is looking into some wholesale recycling projects in the county, including textiles, mattresses and expanded polystyrene (styrofoam). Stay tuned for more.

And finally, the new solid waste system seems to be working out well. SWEC has worked through some problems with the Northern Transfer Station, outside Cooperstown, caused by its small size and the increased usage. These difficulties should be addressed at this point, partly by rearranging the site, and partly by a new permit which allows a good deal more tonnage to be collected. And we seem to be making some money at the end of the day (actually, the end of the year): the more waste that comes through the two transfer stations, the better off we are, so we make money in the summer and pay Casella in the winter. Overall, we seem to come out ahead.