Montgomery County Council members face two major votes Tuesday, Oct. 27, on the Dickerson trash incinerator and water rates.

Council President Natali Fani-González plans to introduce two competing resolutions on the incinerator's future Tuesday afternoon, Bethesda Magazine reported. One resolution would express the council's desire to refurbish the facility for long-term use. The other would call for closing it and shifting to long-haul trucking of waste to an out-of-county landfill.

Both resolutions would support starting an in-county food scrap composting facility.

The incinerator, formally called the Resource Recovery Facility, has burned roughly 600,000 tons of the county's waste per year since 1995, according to county officials. Remaining ash goes to a landfill near Richmond, Virginia. The county extended its contract with the facility's operator through April 2031 in November 2024, but kept an option for early termination.

Fani-González has set a Thanksgiving deadline for a council vote. Six votes are needed to move forward with any waste disposal option, Bethesda Magazine reported. The council will not hold public hearings on the competing resolutions, Fani-González told the publication.

In an email to colleagues, Fani-González said decisions on ash disposal and advanced waste processing technology "will follow from the threshold decision" about whether to close the incinerator.

The debate has split council members. During a September council work session, Councilmember Kristin Mink said long-haul trucking was appealing because costs would drop as the county moves toward its zero-waste goal. Refurbishing or building a new facility, she said, would be a fixed investment that does not shrink with the waste stream.

Councilmember Dawn Luedtke raised the opposite concern: without an operational facility, the county would have no leverage over hauling costs. She also flagged the impact on residents near the Shady Grove Transfer Station in Derwood, where a traffic study found the long-haul option would add a net 40 trash trucks per day.

County Executive Marc Elrich has pushed back on Fani-González's timeline. In a September media briefing, Elrich said the council should not rush a vote, Bethesda Magazine reported. Fani-González called his criticism "shocking," noting contract deadlines drive the schedule.

Water and sewer rates

Also on Oct. 27, the council is expected to vote on fiscal year 2028 spending control limits for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), the utility that serves 1.9 million residents across Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

County Executive Elrich and the council's Transportation and Environment Committee support a 7% maximum rate increase, according to a council staff report. WSSC also presented an option to raise rates by up to 8.2%. The Prince George's County Council approved a 5% cap on Oct. 20.

The spending limits guide WSSC as it drafts its budget but do not lock in a final rate. Both county councils will set the actual rate during the budget process in May, according to the staff report.

The council meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Stella Werner Council Office Building in Rockville.