 May 2nd, but in the tree planting that's April 25th, on May 2nd is a green up day. And what's special about this green up day is the city's landfill is going to be open pre-assault for city residents who are non-commercial, obviously. We don't want the commercial haulers to use it on that day. But if you're living the city of Burlington and you want to clean out your attic and clean out the basement and get the crap out of the backyard, May 2nd is the day. Because you can take all of your stuff down to the landfill pre-assault. On that day, we're also going to have volunteers working with the parks department and the public works department going throughout the city, getting rid of the litter that is in the city, that's in the city. When the snow melts, you begin to see a lot of things that are not very effective. So we want to clean up the city on that day. We want to clean up the waterfront area of the park. And we'll be assembling here in City Hall. We'll have the implements that will be needed. We'll have plenty of plastic trash bags. And again, we're going to need volunteers to make that project a success. For those people who might not know where we are, it is not a bird sanctuary. It is the Burlington landfill. And this, in fact, is where all of our garbage goes. Last night, actually, today being Saturday, I was watching the Nightline on ABC. And they were talking about the national crisis of how communities get rid of their garbage. And this is a problem that we have been dealing with in Burlington for the last three years. I think that it is fair to say, and honest to say, that up until two or three years ago, the Burlington landfill, in fact, was not being run terribly well. But in the last three years, we have as a result of putting pressure on the street department. And then, as a result of the reorganization of the city government in terms of developing a public work department, we now are running this landfill. We think, perhaps as well as any landfill in the state of Vermont is being run. We're very proud of it. This whole area right here, which is now grasped over, a few years ago, used to be not very well kept at all. And the amount of open space where garbage is going in is very limited, and that's obviously over there. Within a couple of years at most, the landfill is going to be filled up with capacity. We then have a grassy area over here. And I think it's probably fair to say that people 10 years from now will not know that this spot contains thousands of tons of garbage right underneath us. What we've done today is part of the cleanup effort. We have opened up for non-commercial truckers, for citizens of the city of Burlington. We've opened up the landfill free of charge to encourage people to get the garbage out of their backyards and out of their homes. And also today, actually, interestingly enough, there's a whole new process which has been inaugurated where there is a stand over there by the entrance where people can come in and throw it into a large crate-type thing. And that will be transported over here. So not all citizens have got to come over here. So in a nutshell, I think we're making real progress on the Burlington landfill. It's being run well. It will be closed down within a couple of years. And right now, the public works department is in the process of figuring out where we're going to go next. And that opens up a whole interesting debate. My own feeling is that we'll probably end up in another landfill, in another site. And that's what's going to happen. What's going to happen out there? Does that stay like that forever? Well, what you're looking at over here, that's a whole other story. And that's, of course, the Burlington Interveil. And the city owns many hundreds of acres. And the Interveil is the last really wide-open space in the city of Burlington. And in truth, that's an area where we have not focused enough attention on in recent years. And we're beginning to look at it a lot harder than we used to. My strong feeling is that we want to keep that space open for the future. In fact, the last working farm in the city of Burlington is, of course, down there, owned by Rena Corkins. I hope very much that that farm will stay in agriculture in years to come and not be used for other types of development. But at some point, you know, what would be very nice to do is to take a tour of the Interveil. It's an extraordinary resource. And I think many people in the city of Burlington are not even familiar with what we own down there. We have hundreds and hundreds of acres. There's an area there that borders right on the Manuski River. It's a good area for picnicking. It is the wild area in the city of Burlington. And actually, in a few moments, we're going to head down to the McNeil woodchip or any plant where we're giving out free woodchips for the people who need that promotion. And we could take a little bit of a tour of the area. But for people who may not know it, the city of Burlington owns hundreds and hundreds of acres of open space down in the Interveil. It's really a great place to go exploring on a Saturday morning. And it's an area that we're going to have to do some real hard thinking about to make certain that it remains open and that it remains wild and it remains available for recreational purposes. But once again, this is the landfill. It's being run today better than it's ever been run before. And it will be saved out within a couple of years. And here is a wild animal. It looks like a cock-a-spaniel coming here to get interviewed as to how he feels about this. Hey, man. Want to say hello to the people? No. It's terribly shy. Where can we go? OK. All right, we're ready to move. OK. OK, this is Tom Moreau, who works with the public and in fact, Tom has the responsibility to make sure that this landfill is being run well. How long have you been in charge of the landfill? Since January of 1986, about a year and a half. I've been mentioning to the people that in the last couple of years you've seen some significant transformation into how this landfill is being run. Want to tell us some of the highlights as to what's happening now? A couple of the major things that we've done in the landfill is two major police control measures. You can see the white lines, the poles coming up around the rim of the landfill here. That is a methane collection system and we're building down below. We have installed a vacuum pump. That vacuum draws upon a pipe which is connected to all the pipes that are in the ground and therefore any methane that may be able to escape from the landfill is captured, brought and burnt and destroyed as it leaves. OK, so what we're seeing there, you can see actually the vapor is rising. Is that correct? That's the fire right there. That's the fire there. That is the methane that's being generated in the landfill and being destroyed via the flame. OK, Tom, I know that there was discussion here and certainly there's discussion nationally about the possibility of trapping that methane gas and using it for productive purpose. We're not using it particularly productively over there. But economically, does it turn out not to be viable here? Essentially, we have an RFP out that we'll be looking at that. What we had to do because of some court action, we wanted to put in certain systems immediately and our first emphasis was to control the methane migration from the landfill and not to capture it for an economic recovery. That will come and I think this landfill has suitability for that. You do think so economically there. In the short term, it all depends on how much garbage you have, how long you've been there. The second major pollution control measure that we have in the landfill is along the northern slope and in the western slope we've dug a 10 foot trench lined with rock and with pipe and all the leachate that's generated from the landfill is captured in this in a pump station down below, pumps it up to the sewer on Manhattan Drive where it's treated at one of our treatment plants. So essentially now the leachate is not leaking into the down below into the water table, the groundwater table. It's predicted that 85% to 95% of the leachate generated at this landfill is generated from percolation or rain or snowmelt and we're capturing that and saying it to one of our treatment plants for treatment. Those are the two major control measures that we have done at the landfill and the other things we've done is mainly cleanup. You can see the whole bank along Manhattan Drive has been bulldozed, seeded. They used to be car bodies, refrigerators, boats. This whole road here is recently known as that. This road is new. We're trying to get good access up into the landfill for all the different people. And so we've also done a lot of aesthetic work. We put in litter fences. If you see the green fences around, they're all just trying to catch papers on blowing days. The landfill is rising in elevation. Therefore we're more susceptible to the winds and also more aesthetically to people. They can see it more because it's no longer in a hole. It's getting higher and higher. And we try to build the lifts. And what we've just done here is a lot of people are, we're coming into the landfill with their personal cars. And on muddy days, it gets difficult in the landfill. So what we've done is we've made a ramp and put a trash pack right here. And periodically during the day and during the week, a hauler will come in, pick this up, bring it into our landfill. And it keeps a lot of personal cars out of the landfill. So essentially now for the smaller vehicles, for the regular cars, they don't have to go tramping through the mud and throw the stuff in. You could just dump it right now that way. That's right. They'll have a good hard road. They'll be able to come up, right into the dumpster and then from there. So what do you think? Is there another couple of years left in this? About. Well, congratulate you and the department for making the very significant improvements that have been needed. So not only is it aesthetically a lot more attractive and a lot less garbage is flying out, but we have now captured the methane gas. Now the real trick is to see whether that can be used productively. We can get some revenue back. That is correct. And the city and the department is looking at that. So does that flame go 24 hours a day? 365 days a year. It's our eternal flame to garbage. That's right. May I ask, how do you burn it without going out of control? The vacuum pump that sucks the methane out of the ground is set at a certain rate. And so it only brings so much gas to the surface at any particular time. And so that's controlled. We have valves on the whole system. Each well, if you can just see the little black box between in front of it, is a valve. And so our technicians go in and adjust the valve just enough for removing just enough methane and we can burn it under control. Is there much more fluctuation in it? Yes, there is. Is there really? There's a major fluctuation, depending on the frost cover on the landfill. So if the land, like most earth, it breathes, but when the earth can't breath, especially during the winter months, or as we've compacted the landfill better and put better cover material on, it forces more methane into the gas. But on a day-to-day basis, everything being equal, there should not be. Yeah, actually there is. It depends on moisture. Also, what I was thinking, methane gas is a type of gas that almost is like gasoline. Turn around. Can it explode if it ain't controlled? Yes, it can. Methane is an explosive, but not underground because it won't get those kinds of concentrations. But that's how it comes. The whole site is locked up and everything's totally controlled. Of course, Jane, you should introduce yourself to the viewers. This is Jane McDougal. I know him from St. Joseph's. And Jane has been working with the city and helping us out in the volunteer capacity. And as well as cities. Let me finish, all right? In the last few years, in helping us making the city aware of the problems of the handicapped. That's right. Handicapped the accessibility on the sidewalks and as far as getting the old broken up to get brand new and making it into more accessible to turn around and to get better of a painted crosswalk. So anybody, not just the handicapped, anybody can see where they go because they're partly fading away and they need to be repainted every so often so many times a year because of the rainwaters and the snow and the salt deteriorate the paint. Absolutely right. But that's another division of public works that we have to talk to. That's not Tom's problem. Well, no, I didn't say it was Tom. I'm just saying just boiling down to that as far as maintain the city streets, crosswalks and sidewalks and refixing the broken. That's right. Well, we have a special surprise. Okay, today at the landfill, the Public Works Department has been giving out some literature explaining why in fact fees have gone up quite significantly, may have. Now we knew that a couple of years ago because of mandates placed on us by the state government and because of our own inclination we wanted to phase out this landfill and make it as environmentally sound as we could. And that's an expensive proposition. We placed on two occasions bond issues before the people. In both instances, we got an overwhelming majority but we didn't get the two thirds that we needed. In one instance we lost by a few tenths of a percentage point, if I recall, right? So in order to come up with the money to phase out this landfill in an environmentally sound way and to deal with the methane problem that Tom was talking about in the lead shape problem and other problems, it cost us money. And what the Public Works Department has been giving out today is some literature explaining to the people where the money is going through their increased typically. Tom, do you wanna maybe go over this diagram a little bit? Fine, what you'll see is the greatest percentage of the fees will go to capital projects. That's to pay back the pollution control measures. Roughly 39 to 40% of our fees are going to pay for the lead shape control system and the methane control system. The other major block you'll see here is the filling cover material which is roughly 26% of our cost. Unlike a lot of the area landfills Bernalenton has to import all its cover material. We go out to bid yearly, award the bid and then it's trucked in on a daily basis. And then you'll see down here a very large 10% of our fees is now going to investigate new alternatives. We're looking at all, the city's investigating various alternatives for the future, the long-term solution of our solid waste problem. And then the remaining approximately 25% of our cost is just going into actually running the landfill. The salaries, the utilities and the maintenance. But notice also that roughly 5.6% of our total budget is going into a recycling effort. And the hope is that if the city of Bernalenton can significantly reduce the volume of trash that has to go to the landfill, it will significantly also reduce the cost of operating the landfill. The first point that I want to re-emphasize is that if you run, there was a time in this state's history and all over the country, people would have a big hold, you throw your crap into it, it was very cheap. The result of that is that you have polluted water, the possibility of toxic waste getting into people's drinking waters and so forth. So in the last number of years there has been obviously a significant increase in the consciousness of people about the environment and about landfills. Excuse me, Jane, and about the impact of landfills. And what Tom is telling us is I think what everybody understands is that it is a very, very expensive process. This landfill today is being run in a much more environmentally sound way than it has ever been run before. However, as a result of that, we are spending a significantly more money than we ever had before. Now we are thinking, as we leave Burlington to go to another landfill, having an engineered landfill and a state-of-the-art landfill, and that is going to be a very expensive proposition because we're gonna build in in the beginning all of these things that we have just put in here in the last few years, make sure that the leachate is collected, make sure that the methane gas is collected and used effectively, and that's not cheap. That's correct. The state-of-the-art landfill is now, Burlington, on an average, is paying $22.40 per ton. To give you a range in New England, that's on the very low end of the scale. Philadelphia, just for comparison, for some large cities, Philadelphia is paying around $120 per ton to get rid of their trash. A lot of the New England landfills are into the $20 to $60 range per ton. Okay, now one of the things here which this piece of literature mentions, which is important and mentions to the people what we are trying to do is increase our ability to recycle material. And recently, the city has appropriated some money to that effort, and a young lady named Veronique Collier has been hired to help coordinate our activities. How are we doing in that area now? Essentially, the first step in the recycling effort will be to determine markets, what can be readily recyclable, what are people's attitudes towards recycling, and establish a program in which we can effectively target certain areas, whether it be newsprint, computer paper, office paper, cardboard, glass and bottles, cans. And essentially, we're just doing the up front work of trying to locate markets, look at other successful programs across the country, determine costs, and then when we implement our program and go to the citizenry, we will have a program in place that will tell us, yes, it is effective for us to do it, and this is how much waste reduction we'll see. Recycling is more complicated than it looks on the surface, because the fact of the matter is unfortunately, especially, I guess, in New England, it is not quite so easy to sell the material and even break even. It's a losing proposition, as I understand that. In fact, if one was to recycle newspapers effectively, the data that I have seen in recent literature is that most of the people would have to work for sub-minimum wage in order to be cost-effective to recycle the newspaper, that, but there's a difference between price and cost there. Right, exactly. That's the point that I want to get into. Now, to what degree does that equation reflect the fact that tons of stuff will not be coming into the landfill and that saves us money? Well, if you can look at it like it's costing Bernalton $22.40 per ton to run a landfill, if you cut down that tonnage, not only will you get dollars for the newsprint or whatever that you are trying to recycle, you also have to factor in the cost of what would have it cost to put it into a landfill. And keeping the landfill open for that much longer, for that much longer, yes. And those are the kind of equations that we're working on now, setting up the entire program to see if we can get an effective program for the city of Bernalton. And also, what's interesting is that markets, to some degree, are dependent upon the location you are in the country. For example, out on the West Coast, they're able to ship various recycled products to Asia. Is that correct? That is correct. One of the things that you're gonna see is it might be nice for Bernalton to wanna come in and recycle all its bottles and cans and recycle all its newsprint, but Bernalton alone in the New England market is just not sufficient. And so therefore, Bernalton may have to bring some of its recycled materials as far as way to Delaware or Washington, D.C. or Baltimore area, and that really makes it cost prohibitive to try to recycle. Now, do I understand correctly that on the West Coast, what they send glass to Japan? Yes, yes. They send the West Coast, because they have some more concentrated markets, has been able to significantly have greater recycling than we have, mainly because of some of the Asian markets. Okay, this is George Tabo, who is my assistant. I'm the assistant to the mayor. George has been very active in the whole beautification effort, and we should point out that what we're doing today is part of an overall beautification project, which was very generously aided by the Howard Bank. They have their sign over there, and the Howard Bank contributed $18,000 to making this beautification project a success. Last week, we had approximately 150 or 200 volunteers out planting trees throughout the city, and this week, of course, is the cleanup effort. And as part of the cleanup effort, we are also dispensing free of charge wood chips, and we're here at the McNeil wood chip burning plant. George, what's that idea about? We have 100 ton pile behind us, Bernie. We have to get rid of it a little later today. I think this is gonna be used, a lot of flower gardens, hedges around the city, trees. People are gonna be mulching some of the trees that we planted, and also trees from a couple of years ago that are still doing very well. It's kind of a bark mulch. The electric department has kind of put it over here near the gate for us, and people have been attacking it since eight o'clock this morning. Okay, and this stuff, what, becomes very good fertilizer, is that correct? Well, it'll break down over time and feed the soil, but it's basically used to cover the ground and keep the moisture in and block out weeds, and it looks attractive to it in a lot of places. It does look very attractive. Okay, this pile was 100 tons. And we're trying to get that down to zero. We started with a 25 ton pile, and I thought that we would need more, so the department brought out some of their big equipment and put some more of this over here. So this is kind of a wood chip. They usually do not burn this. This is kind of a discard. It's more of a shredded material bark mulch. It's actually much better for mulching what people are gonna be using it for than the real wood chips. Good. Good. Okay, we have some hardworking people up there. This young man over here. Glad to see you're doing some productive work. We have two people who occasionally pose as the economic development director and the treasurer here. Well, this is a lot easier. This is a lot easier, the pushing papers, is that correct? Absolutely. Good. Okay, good enough. Now, behind us, you can see a number of cows in an old farm and some people working on the farm. So the question is, are we in Franklin County? Are we in East Montpelier? Are we in Southern Vermont? Where are we? Well, the answer, of course, is we are in the city of Burlington, and this is the last active farm in our city, and it's owned by Rena Cawkins. And in fact, you can see a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new, because right across the street is the McNeil wood chip burning plant. And I think sometime within the next couple of months, or maybe even sooner than that, we're gonna come down and do a little bit more talking about the intervail in general and about Rena's farm. But did just wanna mention to the people as we pass by this area, that there is one active farm remaining in the city of Burlington, and that's Rena's farm, and that's where we are right now.