Category A: Disposal of Debris (1 of 3)

FEMA provides Public Assistance funding for various costs related to disposing of debris. The Applicant should dispose of debris in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Vegetative debris is bulky and can consume a significant volume of landfill space. To minimize the use of landfill space, FEMA encourages the Applicant to reduce the volume of vegetative debris before burying. Costs to reduce vegetative debris using methods such as mulching, grinding, or burning are eligible.

Certain types of construction and demolition debris are reusable or recyclable. The Applicant should conserve landfill space by separating materials for reuse or recycling.

Category A: Disposal of Debris (2 of 3)

Temporary Staging Sites

Establishing and operating a temporary staging site necessary for the purpose of debris separation and reduction is eligible. The cost to lease property is eligible. Additionally, if the terms of the lease require that the Applicant restore the leased property back to its condition prior to the Applicant's use, the costs related to that restoration are also eligible as part of the Category A project.

Hand-Loaded Trucks and Trailers

FEMA has determined that, for vegetative debris, hand-loaded trucks and trailers achieve approximately half the compaction level of mechanically loaded trucks and trailers. Therefore, FEMA only provides Public Assistance funding for 50 percent of the vegetative debris in hand-loaded trucks and trailers.

Similarly, trucks without solid tailgates cannot be compacted to full capacity. Therefore, FEMA will only fund a maximum of 85 percent of the debris in trucks without solid tailgates.

The Applicant must document the types and total quantity of debris that was hand-loaded and the types and total quantity of debris hauled in trucks without solid tailgates and provide this information to FEMA to ensure appropriate reductions are taken for this debris.

Category A: Disposal of Debris (3 of 3)

Tipping Fees

A tipping fee is the charge levied upon a given quantity of waste received at a waste processing facility. In the case of a landfill it is generally levied to offset the cost of opening, maintaining and eventually closing the site. Landfill tipping fees usually include fixed and variable costs, along with special taxes or fees assessed by the jurisdiction in which the landfill is located.

Eligible tipping fee costs are limited to the variable and fixed costs directly related to landfill operations, such as recycling tax. The components of tipping fees not directly related to landfill operations, such as special taxes or fees related to other government services or public infrastructure, are not eligible as part of the tipping fee. When providing Public Assistance funding for tipping fees, FEMA removes any ineligible components.

The Applicant may use a significant portion of the available capacity of a landfill to dispose of incident-related debris. Although FEMA provides Public Assistance funding for tipping fees, it cannot provide funding for the value of the loss of landfill capacity due to incident-related debris.

General Category A Considerations

As stated previously, this module provided an overview of common types of debris removal and their requirements.

The next few slides discuss the general considerations an Applicant should make for all Category A projects. This includes the following:

• Monitoring debris removal operations
• Special considerations

• Environmental and historic preservation

• Alternative Procedures Pilot Program for debris removal

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