Page 12- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988
ANN ARBOR ISSUES

City seeks solutionN
for dump overflow 47

BY MIKE PITTMAN
In 1987, the city of Islip, New
York floated 3,000 tons of trash on a
barge down the East Coast because
its garbage dump was reaching ca-
pacity. With Ann Arbor's Platt Road
landfill nearly full, the city may
soon find itself in a similar predica-
ment.
Ann Arbor's primary landfill
currently holds enough trash to fill
Michigan Stadium more than 30
times. By early 1989, the landfill
will have reached its capacity, said
Ray Ayer, administrative assistant at
the Ann Arbor Solid Waste Depart-
nient.
ANN ARBOR won't be sending
a barge up Lake Michigan, but it
may have to set up a transfer system,
sending trash to neighboring cities if
solutions recommended by a city
task force are not implemented.
The city could request an overfill
permit from the Michigan Depart-
nment of Natural Resources, which
Would allow the city to pile garbage
on its landfill for one or two more
years, Ayer said.
But city officials say they are
most interested in expanding the
primary landfill. This expansion
would give the city five to 10 more
years of use, according to a city re-
port written by Energy Consultant
Cynthia Conklin. The landfill would
take a few years to construct, still
necessitating an overfill permit.
C e
Crime
Continued from Page 11
dicting where criminal behavior,
such as sexual assault, is going to
happen, the police are no different
than you and I. They can follow up,
but that doesn't stop crime."
"Solving crime is not a law en-
forcement question, it's a social

THE AASWD has sent a design
for the new landfill to the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources.
Like most landfills, it was designed
to be built on a water table, but it has
"a better design than the minimum
regulations of the law require; its
design is unique," said Synthia
Noble, an MDNR waste manager.
However, the state department
has suggested several changes in the
'Recycling started as a
hippie-cool thing and it
now is a serious viable
option to managing solid
waste.'
-Ann Arbor Ecology
Center representative
Jeryl Davis.
specifics of the original design; for
example, the department proposed to
increase the "buffer zone" between
the landfill and its surrounding area.
Before the state discusses the
landfill, City Council will hold pub-
lic hearings about the plan. These
hearings may be in progress or
completed by summer's end, offi-
cials said.
Conklin said she expects opposi-

tion to the landfill - not from envi-
ronmental preservation groups, but
from private companies who say
they can build and maintain it at a
lower cost than the city.
THE CITY'S Solid Waste Task
Force and Solid Waste Department
are also promoting the recycling and
composting of city waste. The waste
department does not favor building
an incinerator because it produces
toxic gases.
Currently, Ann Arbor residents
recycle about 10 percent of the solid
waste they produce, said Jeryl
Davis, recycling education co-
ordinator for the Ann Arbor Ecology
Center. Last year, Michigan named
Ann Arbor the Governmental Re-
cycler of the Year, and the city plans
on furthering its recycling efforts.
For the first time ever, Ann Arbor
this year publicly composted some
9,000 cubic yards of leaves. Com-
posting is a process of making rich
soil by allowing organic material to
decompose, Ayer said.
BUT LANDFILLS are still
necessary, Ayer added, to dispose of
trash that can't be recycled, burned,
or composted. Conklin said other
ways to reduce trash include bans on
non-biodegradable packages like
styrofoam, similar to a ban approved
in Berkeley, Calif.
The University has responded to
the city's concerns by implementing
recycling programs in its housing


question," Epton said, adding that
President Lyndon Johnson's War on
Poverty in the '60s could be a good
model for discouraging criminals to-
day. "As crimes go up, communities
tend to panic, and hire more police."
Some councilmembers, though,
say Epton and other Democrats'
criticisms of the police force are un-
founded. "We have a fine police de-
partment," said Republican Mayor
Gerald Jernigan. "Students can feel

more comfortable knowing that
there's an officer walking around."
JERNIGAN SAID, "More
patrols, and more beat officers are
beneficial to the town just for the
presence and the visibility factor."
As rape reports and drug problems
go up, burglary is becoming less of
an issue, said Ann Arbor Police Det.
Jerry Wright. In city residences, the
police reported 1,208 cases of theft,
down from 1,321 last year.

.
&r
ROBIN LOZNAK/Doily
Officials say Ann Arbor's Platt Road landfill will reach capacity by 1990. Even with a new
site, the city may have to find another way to dispose of its waste within the next decade.
department. Housing Department more effectively deal with the Uni- come exciting," said Ecology Center
head George SanFacon will head the versity's trash - which comprises Representative Jeryl Davis. "Re-,
Housing Division Waste Manage- about 15 percent of the landfill. cycling started as a hippie-cool thing
ment Task Force, expected to in- "THE ACTIONS of the Housing and it now is a serious viable option
volve about 15 dormitory residents. Task Force can be a model to be to managing solid waste."
Alan Levy, director of West picked up by other paper and waste But to spread recycling, people's
Quad residence hall, said the pro- producers in the University," said attitudes may have to change, Ayer
gram will be in full swing by Doug Fasinger, a University Hous- said. "We live in a throw-away
January, 1989. The program will ing Department director. society, and everyone is into conve-
increase recycling in the dorms to The issue of recycling "has be- nience," he said.
person making minimum wage just because it provides a place to
could not afford the $267 per month live," she said.
~ proposed rent, which doesn't include BUT THE CITY should do more
Continued from Page 11 board. to try and help homeless and single-
problem." But Mike Dabbs, head of the parent families by helping to stimu-
Edgren said she supported the YMCA, said the project is intended late more development, she said.
YMCA project but was skeptical of to "meet the needs of the commu- She added that the city needs to
the use of city funds for a project nity, and in this community, a pri- improve the state of some current
that may not be limited to low-in- mary need is housing. The reality is low-income housing.
come residents. that most people staying here are on "Years of neglect from the city
"Some feel there should be an in- the lower-wage end of things." has made the public housing de-
come eligibility requirement, that Kathy Baldwin, who is active in teriorate," she said. "Public housing'
you must be low income to live at helping residents find affordable is just like living anywhere else, but
the YMCA," she said. housing and who has herself lived in no one wants to put money into it."
MANY YMCA residents are di- low-income housing, agreed that the
vorced men or short-term visitors city should limit the number ofAbo
looking for a temporary, inexpensive SRO's. "We don't want people co-!"1
place to stay, Edgren said, and a ming to Ann Arbor from other towns
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