The Daviess County Fiscal Court has approved a one-year extension of a waste management services agreement with Owensboro Municipal Utilities (OMU).
“We signed a contract almost five years ago with OMU to handle their coal combustion residuals…what’s left over after they burn coal,” explained David Smith, Director of Legislative Services.
“We hoped to be done by this point already,” he added. “It turns out, originally, we were taking it from the stock that they were creating. Now, we are taking it from their sediment ponds.”
OMU is trying to empty all of the sediment ponds as part of shutting down the coal-fired power plant.
“Those ponds turned out to be a little bit deeper than they realized,” Smith told the Court. “So, they are now looking at extending this contract for a year. They think they will be done in six months.”
“This is a very good way to dispose of it,” he said. “The other system they have used is backfilling coal stripped pits. Of course, we have a contained landfill so it doesn’t leach into ground water.”
The landfill received the first load of coal combustion residuals in December 2016.
Since then, the site has accepted over a quarter million tons with an estimated revenue of $4.2 million.
“That’s twice what they originally talked about in net tons as well as revenue,” Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said. “It’s good for them and good for us.”
Smith added that it’s also an advantage for OMU customers, keeping rates lower.
Other News:
The Fiscal Court approved a Memorandum of Agreement regarding 911 Operations NCIC/LINK Terminal Access with the special law enforcement agency for Daviess County Public Schools. The agreement will give the agency access to the Law Information Network of Kentucky (LINK) to log and access data.
The Sheriff’s Office and the County Clerk’s Office submitted budgets for the 2021 calendar year.
Treasurer Jim Hendrix said the Clerk’s Office will spend up to $150,000 on a renovation of its Records Room to increase storage capacity and reorganize permanent records for preservation. This project is funded by a new $10 document storage fee approved by the state last year.
The Fiscal Court approved resolutions for subdivision street lighting districts at Whispering Meadows and Saddle Pointe.
Bids were awarded for property maintenance mowing, two semis at the Grimes Avenue Transfer Station, and bulk shotgun ammunition for the Daviess County Gun Club.
The Court re-appointed Scott Kuegel to the Daviess County Water District Board for a one-year term, ending January 1, 2022.
Amy Lilly was appointed to the Green River Area Council on Aging for a term that expires in December 2023.
