What is it with dog poop and Norwalk? Today, as I was investigating the latest developments in the garbage proposal, conversation turned to one of my more favorite issues, flooding and the progress of the storm water drainage projects. For those of you who think DEP approvals fall from trees, the status of the Lockwood/Buckingham pipe replacement project should give you pause. You see, before issuing a permit to replace the storm water draingage pipe, the DEP measures for thigns like e-coli. And it turns out that the existing pipe has high levesl of e-coli, so no permit.
DPW investigated and it turned out that the reason for the high e-coli counts, was because someone, ppresumably residents, had been dropping dog poop into the catch basins. Apparently there was one catch basin filled with dog poop blocking the grate. That would be a sh*tload of poop. The end result is that the pipe project is now delayed by a year. Somethign to do with warm weather, bids and permits. Which is something to keep in mind as the garbage proposal meanders its way through the now very political process.
The irony, if you can call it that, is that no matter what council members decide to do tonight, garbage will be sorted and shipped out of the Meadow street transfer station. While City Carting does have an option to buy the transfer station itself, Waste Management still owns it. And should City Carting not execute the option on the property, Waste Management will either seek another buyer, or continue to operate it. Where things get interesting is that garbage is suddenly, with the price of fuel for power generation, an interesting business to get into.
City Carting, the contracted company that hauls garbage for a variety of SoNo residents and businesses like Harbor View, already dispatches its trucks from the Meadow street facility. That use, is not going to go away, regardless of the decision tonight. The traffic projection, as a result of the proposal is essentially insignificant. As much as people like to think traffic reports are inaccurate, they are pretty reliable predictors of traffic volumes. I have a few theories of why traffic seems much worse these days, but that involves people and bad driving, so I’ll save it for another day.
The basic issue we are left with then is whether the City of Norwalk will contract with City Carting to change the level of garbage processing or not. That level of garbage processing includes additional recycling options that would become available to residents at Crescent street, since the commercial trash processing would be shifted to Meadow street. That would include, batteries, electronics, and motor oil. Those items are in addition to an increased accetance of paper and plastic products. Currently, as most know, you have to drive to Bridgeport or Stamford to dispose of those computer monitors, television sets and other electronic items.
The other bits of data worth mentioning is that the tipping fee that City Carting would be charging is based a November bid. As we all know, fuel has risen sharply since then. Locking in those bid rates is a smart financial decision. There’s been some questions raised about the status of the DEP permit for Meadow Street. The DEP, as Mike Geake reported in another thread, is not making permit procesisng a high priority, but the end result is that the site can continue operations under the filed application for permit renewal.
Tonight (6:30 PM Council Chambers City Hall) a third public hearing will be held on the subject. The details of most of what I wrote will be presented, yet again. Of the 15 council members, only a few have called into DPW for additional details. Bill Krummel and Fred Bondi are the only ones who made a trip up to the City Carting facility in Stamford. Reportedly it is clean and well run. Too bad there aren’t any available pictures to see how the transfer station is run in Stamford. I think we all know how our transfer station looks. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
