Solid Waste Planning and
Transportation: challenges in
implementing GIS in rural areas
Laura Stiller
Barbara L. Maclennan
Sue Bergeron
Monongalia County Solid Waste Authority
Self-Sufficient
No tax monies
No landfill monies
1.2 acres
Processing
About 50 trucks per day bring commodities
Private haulers and businesses
Does not count public drop off locations (8)
2 driver shifts to drop off
About 20,000 tons a week
Mon County Solid Waste Authority
About 20,000 tons a week
Partnership with Marion County
Grew 1,000% in 3 years
Distribution
Local and regional businesses
Long distance haulers about 4 per day
Markets
2
ndlargest WV commodities /markets
Only one able to handle all colors glass
Could handle higher number plastics locally
Could handle prescription bottles
Could handle plastic film
Hauling
Local haulers
Long distance haulers
Transportation over North America
Recyclables provide ballast and extra income
Brokers and Mills
Processing and Distribution Centers
Recycling centers do processing & distribution
Transportation Constraints in West Virginia
No free-market for hauling solid waste/recyclables
How is solid waste transportation?
No free-market for hauling solid waste/recyclables
Not supported by taxes
No urban areas
Few interstate routes
Few regional processing & distribution centers
In the works
Model regional processing & distribution center
Updated Hauler GIS
Reduce Cost of Waste Disposal
Mon County recycled 4,500 tons in FY 2008. If this
same amount were landfilled, the tipping fees
alone would be $270,000
Job Creation
Community Improvement
Economic Development
Community Improvement
Benefits to Hauler
Ballast and extra money on hauling
Better infrastructure increases manufacturing
Benefits to Resident
Benefits to Municipality
Monongalia County Solid Waste
Authority GIS (MCSWA GIS)
• Design Goals
– Develop a GIS that could be utilized in both day-to-day operations at
the MCSWA and in long-range planning
– Demonstrate how solid waste and recycling could be integrated with
other government services to create a comprehensive GIS
management and planning tool
• Data Collection
•
– Identify and map local and regional recycling drop-off locations and
resources
– Identify and map waste hauler territories and routes
– Identify and map relevant data related to environmental issues, such
as open dumps, water quality, etc.
– Develop demographic layers to aid in improving recycling service and
planning for increased demand, such as business locations and type
MCSWA GIS geodatabase design
• Base Data Layers
– Administrative boundaries – Hydrography
– Transportation
• Recycling Data Layers
– Recycling drop-off locations – Recycling centers
– Regional recycling businesses and markets
• Environmental Data Layers
– Open Dump sites – Open Dump sites
– Landfills (open and close) – EPA registered facilities
– National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
• Planning and Demographic Data Layers
– Business locations and type – Census demographic data
• Waste Hauler Data Layers
– Waste Hauler territories (tariffs) – Waste Hauler routes (in progress)
– Waste Hauler service addresses (in progress)
Creating Waste Hauler Data Layers
• Digitizing narrative tariffs
– Interpreting text descriptions of location and
generating specific GIS data layers
– Resolving ambiguities in descriptions
• Developing a route layer
• Developing a route layer
– Determining streets and roads that fall within hauler
territories
– Generating a line layer for each hauler
• Developing a service address layer
– Address only, no names to protect privacy
Digitizing Waste Hauler Tariffs:
Challenges and Issues
• Waste hauling conceived and regulated as both a utility and a motor carrier
– All WV businesses and households are required to have trash pickup service
– No unified system for identifying and mapping waste hauler routes or service addresses
• Interpret text descriptions filed with tariffs
– Tariff authorities often date back for decades
– Are drawn up and executed as text documents, no maps are required or submitted – No consistent language or geographical boundaries used in descriptions
– Widely varying level of detail in descriptions of
– WV Public Service Commission does not maintain a master map to determine if the tariff – WV Public Service Commission does not maintain a master map to determine if the tariff
descriptions are accurate or comprehensive
• Resolve ambiguous terms
– “side roads” –
• what defines a side road
• How far down a side road that connect to another road?
• Resulting polygons are not related to a master data set and can not be considered
authoritative for management purposes
– Polygons do not indicate specific roads or locations, nor ensure that all addresses are served – Overlaps and missing areas
– Local haulers sometimes make informal agreements to resolve disputes that are not reflected in official tariff authorities
– WV Public Service Commission, Motor Carrier Division also maintains a separate system of records, known as “blue cards” to determine route authority for waste haulers that do not necessarily agree with tariff boundaries
Generating a waste hauler
territory polygon -
example
Initial description – “those points and places in Marion County, east of I-79, that are located within a radius of five (5) miles of the intersection between I- 79 and W Va. Route 310”
Generating a waste hauler
territory polygon -
example
“excluding the following points and places: (a) those points and places that are located to the east of Little Creek;
(b) those points and places that are located to the north of Marion County Route 76; “
Final waste hauler territory polygon layer
After all exclusions enumerated in the textual description were applied, the remaining polygons represent the waste hauler territory as described in the tariff
Mapping Waste Hauler Routes
• After completing waste hauler territory GIS layer,
determined that polygon layers were not
sufficient
• Initially, an intersect operation was utilized to
select the roads and streets contained within
select the roads and streets contained within
each waste hauler territory
• A preliminary line layer was generated indicating
the streets and roads served by each hauler
• Accuracy issues with the waste hauler tariff
boundaries also affect the route layer
Mapping Waste Hauler Service
Addresses
• After reviewing the waste hauler territory digitization
process, it was determined that the highest level of
accuracy could be obtained by mapping individual
service addresses for each waste hauler
• Waste haulers are required by WV law to provide
• Waste haulers are required by WV law to provide
customer lists to ensure that all households and
businesses comply with trash service requirements
• Addresses can be geocoded (without customer names)
to determine what locations are served by each hauler
• Currently working with test data sets for several
haulers to generate a service address data layer
Future work
Continue to develop GIS data layers for waste hauler service addresses
Utilize service address data to develop accurate route data
Utilize MCSWA GIS data layers in the development of new management and collaboration tools, such as 3D digital city models
