Sun, Nov 22 2009
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Burning vs. mulching Cities looking to balance cost, environment in debris cleanup “We already had a huge supply of wood chips several weeks before the ice storm,” she said.
Timing looms as a key factor, particularly if the city seeks assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency. The city is eligible to be reimbursed for up to 85 percent of cleanup costs, and FEMA allows six months for the work to be completed, Phillips said. “Last year, we were pushing it right up to the last minute,” she said of cleanup from the January 2007 ice storm. Finances also come into play because it is more expensive to grind up the debris than to burn it, according to city officials. Joplin officials estimate the city would save at least $250,000 by burning the debris rather than mulching it, based on the bids it has received for both types of work, Phillips said. Lucks, at Springfield, said it would have cost an additional $1.5 million to mulch the debris from last year’s storm instead of burning it. Even with 85 percent of the cost reimbursed, the city would have incurred an additional $225,000 in costs, she said. The total bill for removing and disposing of storm debris in Springfield and Greene County came to about $19 million, according to Lucks. David Hertzberg, Joplin public works director, said the City Council likely will decide at a meeting later this month how to dispose of the storm debris. Other cities Webb City officials would prefer to mulch their city’s yard waste if possible, said City Administrator Steve Garrett. Webb City does not have a mulcher that could accommodate the estimated 100,000 cubic yards of waste that ultimately will be gathered from the city, but Garrett said he hopes the Environmental Protection Agency will grind up the debris for use in land-reclamation projects it has under way in the Webb City area. If not, Webb City likely will have to burn its waste, he said. The cities of Pittsburg, Kan., and Carthage have decided to burn their debris, but not every city has taken that route. Neosho accumulated about 120,000 cubic yards of debris after the January 2007 ice storm and chose to mulch the materials, said Bobby Gregg, the city’s emergency management director. Gregg said it cost the city about $120,000 to grind up the waste. He said he did not know how much it would have cost to burn, but he said burning that much wood would have released significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. “What is our environment worth to us?” Gregg asked. And, there was the fear that the smoke would drift into populated areas and cause breathing problems for people, particularly those with respiratory problems, he said. Staff writer Susan Redden contributed to this report. 
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