Maze: Burning yard waste will be cheaper, meets EPA standards

The City of Hartselle is investigating whether an air curtain burner is a viable alternative to replace its chipper for handling the city’s brush disposal at the city landfill.

Public Works Superintendent Daxton Maze shared with the Hartselle City Council three different burners – a trench burner and two FireBox burners –as options to handle the yard waste removal. The prices ranged from $41,650 for a trench burner to $141,650 for a large capacity FireBox burner.

Currently, the city’s chipper is in need of repairs and would need at least $130,000 to completely refurbish the city’s current device. Purchasing a new chipper would cost more than $300,000.

Based on the pricing alone, Maze’s early estimates have shown that purchasing and operating a burner would be much cheaper than trying to repair or replace the chipper.

“The cost is very much the same, but it is much cheaper to operate and maintain,” Maze said. “The money that we make from selling the mulch that comes the out of chipper doesn’t cover the cost of how much it takes to operate it.”

Maze said the air curtain burners are compliant with EPA air quality regulation 40CFR60 and reduce 50 tons of yard debris down to about one ton of ash. Some of that ash would be marketable as soil additive for nurseries and farms.

Some concerns were raised about whether some residents would be affected by smoke or any residual particulate matter. There are several residential areas near the landfill, including the Valley View and Bluff Park subdivisions along with residential areas along Mountain View Drive.

“The opacity of the smoke is 90 percent less than what it would be open burning,” Maze said. “From what I’ve found out, you might not even realize that we were burning because the smoke is so thin.”

Maze said he and Mayor Don Hall were planning to visit a burner in Albertville to see how their operation works. However, he didn’t have specific details on the exact spread of any residual matter and other EPA and ADEM requirements for each of the curtain burner options.

Maze said the trench burner option would be difficult at the landfill due to the lack of undisturbed soil at the landfill, which is nearing its capacity. The FireBox would need a solid waste division waiver to occupy the facility and an air division permit.

And ADEM would require 200 to 300 feet of linear clearance between open or closed landfills and the burning operation.