Disaster Debris Management Planning Project Develops Into Model

THE CHALLENGE

When disasters occur, in just hours or days communities often generate as much waste as they ordinarily would in many weeks, months, or even years. The materials—typically including trees and brush, building debris, garbage, rotting food, chemicals, and damaged electronics and appliances—present dangers and must be removed as quickly as possible. Ordinary systems are overwhelmed: a packer truck that can collect trash from an entire neighborhood in one run under normal circumstances may fill up in half a block.

The 2014 floods resulted in three-months worth of trash in three weeks. (Photo by: Jeff McKeen)

In Michigan, managing all this material is under the jurisdiction of townships, towns, and cities. When disasters cover large areas, multiple communities face these challenges simultaneously. The systems and companies that handle day-to-day loads cannot manage it all, or worse, may have seen their equipment and facilities destroyed, too. Outside entities often come in offering services but may charge usury prices, because they know communities are desperate and have few choices. In the urgency and confusion to clean up debris, many materials which should be recycled, composted, or directed to other beneficial reuses are generally landfilled.

Emergency management institutions—the Michigan State Police, the EPA, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security, for example— recognize all of this and have long recommended pre-planning for disaster debris management (DDMPP). They offer extensive information resources to support communities in the process. However, U.S. communities rarely complete disaster-debris management plans outside of highly hurricane-prone regions. As the climate crisis threatens communities with more frequent and severe disasters, it is more crucial than ever for communities to be implementing plans and ensuring all materials are properly managed, minimizing the amount sent to landfill.

THE SOLUTION

Two entities in Oakland County, Michigan, collectively representing 21 communities, are working on establishing a regional Disaster Debris Management Plan to ensure the region is prepared to responsibly manage debris from these events.

Home flooded during 2014 storm. (Photo by: Jeff McKeen)

Mike CSAPO, the general manager of the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC), understands why disaster debris management plans aren’t the norm in Michigan. “After the 2020 Sandford Dam disaster, I started talking to my communities about this and realized that they haven’t done disaster-debris management planning because don’t have enough employees, they don’t have the expertise, and they don’t have enough money. Michigan communities are functioning with 30% less staff than they were before the 2008 real-estate crash. They have a lot on their plates that they must do now so what might happen in the future takes a back seat.”

Recognizing this, Csapo, and his counterpart at the Southeast Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority (SOCRRA), Jeff McKeen, got together and asked themselves how they could facilitate planning for their member communities. They read up on disaster-debris management, explored resources, attended webinars, and, Csapo said, “...learned enough to conclude that we didn’t have the expertise and time to do a good job ourselves.”

They turned to the NextCycle Michigan I2P3 (Intergovernmental and Public Private Partnerships) Accelerator Track for technical support in preparing to contract for the development of a regional plan, with individual—but coordinated—plans for each of their member townships, towns, and cities.

THE RESULTS

Through the I2P3 Accelerator Track, Csapo and McKeen were paired with Matt Naud, a senior consultant with RRS who served as the City of Ann Arbor’s environmental coordinator and has over 30 years of public sector sustainability, emergency management, and transportation planning experience. Together, they developed a request for qualifications (RFQ) and a request for proposals (RFP) to prepare the debris management plans.

The NextCycle Michigan Network also introduced Csapo and McKeen to relevant contacts at EGLE (the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) and EPA Region 5. Oakland County took notice of the I2P3 project and became a partner, taking the lead on administering the RFQ and RFP process. Tetra Tech was chosen to support the next steps in the planning. Compiling the plan is budgeted at roughly $100,000, less than half of what Csapo estimated.

2014 flood disaster debris staged at a SOCRRA facility; disaster resulted in 20,429 tons of waste at a cost of $2.7 million. (Photo by: Jeff McKeen)

Beyond projecting volumes and laying out a series of actions, the plans will specify who the communities plan to turn to for materials hauling, staging, monitoring, decontamination, and ultimately a combination of recycling, composting, beneficial reuse, and landfilling. The plans are expected to be completed in 2024.

With the plans in hand, the authorities and communities will be prepared to obtain competitive bids for services and sign prepositioned contracts for the diverse services and facilities needed. According to FEMA, “The use of prepositioned contracts allows applicants to conduct a deliberate procurement process outside of the pressure and immediate demands of a disaster. It also helps to ensure that applicants have contractors ready to perform work quickly after an incident occurs when needed most.”

Competitive bidding for work is a requirement for communities to receive FEMA reimbursement for disaster expenses. So, in addition to getting the services at the best possible price, this step sets communities up to recover some of their costs.

Csapo emphasizes that communities are connected. A disaster in one township or city affects commerce, transportation, employment, and more in neighboring communities. So, partnering to take on disaster-debris management makes sense even beyond sharing expenses.

According to the January 9, 2024, press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. dealt with 28, separate billion-dollar disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 22 events in 2020.

“The U.S. was hit with more billion-dollar disasters in 2023 than any other year on record, highlighting the increasing risks from our changing climate,” said NOAA National Center for Environmental Information Director Deke Arndt. “Record heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods are a sobering reminder of the consequences of the long-term warming trend we’re seeing across our country.”

Csapo hopes other community leaders seeing these trends will prioritize disaster-debris management pre-planning. He sees the RRRASOC+SOCRRA documents as a jumping-off place for DDMPP efforts in other southeast Michigan communities, or perhaps statewide. Representatives of the EPA suggested even broader use of the approach, envisioning its application throughout the United States.