When City Manager Mary Suhm proposed dumping all of the city's trash at the McCommas Bluff Landfill as a revenue-generating brainstorm last summer, few imagined it would become such a hot-button issue this summer. Because in 2010, the idea came and went nowhere, along with that suggested transportation user fee and that proposal that nonprofits pay the city something since they're not coughing up property taxes. But here we are, with solid-waste disposal companies and Paul Quinn College and some southern Dallas residents lined up on one side and City Hall on the other, all ready to go to war over dumping trash at McCommas -- a proposal, the city says, that'll generate millions in methane gas revenue and tipping fees.
About a month ago we noted that the National Solid Wastes Management Association launched a website to combat the proposal, which is set to go back before the council in coming weeks: Fight City of Dallas Flow Control. Now the city's fighting back: This morning, Danielle McClelland, spokesperson for the city's Sanitation Services department, sent word that the city has launched its own site: The Future of Dallas Waste (which just triggered The Band Name Alert™). McClelland says it went live Friday, and that the city is "just trying to make it easier for people to know exactly what is being proposed and to get input from anyone who wishes to talk with the city directly about it."
You'll find the two briefings to the council, some video from one of the chitchats and other info, not to mention some FAQs, such as:
Why isn't north Dallas getting all this trash?The daisies are a nice touch.
They will. As the City progresses in constructing Resource Recovery Facilities, they will be located throughout the city, just as a waste transfer stations are located throughout the city.
How does this proposal benefit southern Dallas?
The City intends to support the communities nearest to the landfill with an economic development fund designed to meet the development plans for the community.
