Sustainable and Resilient Solid Waste Infrastructure: Davenport, Iowa Case Study
The goal for this report was to examine current municipal solid waste (MSW) management infrastructure of Davenport, Iowa and provide scenarios with resilience, sustainability, and equity considerations in mind. The City of Davenport, Iowa was selected as the project site through discussions among the project team based on its proximity to a major river, availability of data, and a varied set of waste facilities. The City of Davenport is part of the Quad Cities Region in Iowa and Illinois. The Mississippi River separates the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf from the Illinois Quad cities of Rock Island and Moline. Existing tools and data resources created by the State of Iowa (e.g., Iowa Flood Information System) were used to characterize potential climate events and associated impacts. Tools from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) including the Disaster Debris Recovery Tool (DDRT) was used to identify regional waste management infrastructure and the Municipal Solid Waste Decision Support Tool (MSW DST) was used to characterize the cost and life-cycle environmental impacts of MSW management and infrastructure options. EPA’s Environmental Justice tool, EJScreen, was also used to evaluate social aspects of waste facility locations. The study presents scenarios exploring vulnerabilities to climate impacts (e.g., flooding) and sustainability of management practices—including reporting on cost, environmental impacts and environmental justice aspects of facility siting. For purposes of this study, infrastructure includes not only MSW collection and management infrastructure but also supporting urban infrastructure such roads, bridges, electricity and water utilities. The results from this project are intended for use to gain a better understanding of the nature of potential climate events in communities and how those events can impact waste management infrastructure and planning needs, and to evaluate the current MSW management system and options to enhance its sustainability from cost and life-cycle environmental perspectives.