Each resident of Lancaster County generates about 1 ton of trash per year.

That's according to Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority officials, who base the figure on the fact the authority takes in about 500,000 tons of waste each year and there are about 500,000 county residents.

"It's pretty much 1-to-1," Jim Warner, the authority's executive director, said.

The authority doesn't figure each person is tossing a ton of banana peels and cereal boxes into the kitchen garbage can each year, Warner said. The per-person figure also includes waste generated by businesses, such as restaurants and medical offices, that serve residents.

Noting that Lancaster is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, the authority is planning for the addition of tens of thousands of tons to its waste-management system over the next several decades as the county population grows.

Last year, the authority opened its new Harrisburg Pike waste-transfer station, which handles about 55 percent of all of the county's municipal waste and collects household hazardous waste for recycling.

And plans are in place to create a "new" landfill when Frey Farm Landfill in Manor Township reaches its capacity about 2019. The plans call for reusing and vertically expanding the neighboring former Creswell Landfill.

Under the authority's three-pronged approach to waste management, that leaves the trash-to-energy plant in Conoy Township as the only facility still in need of a roadmap for the future.

A cost-benefit analysis of expanding the plant is expected to be completed within the month.

Wednesday, the county commissioners agreed to apply, on the authority's behalf, to the state Department of Environmental Protection for a $95,000 grant, which would pay for the study being done by Dvirka & Bartilucci Consulting Engineers.

According to Warner, the study is expected to show the impact of adding a fourth boiler to the Conoy plant — an addition expected to cost about $175 million.

Currently, the plant operates three boilers — each capable of burning 400 tons of trash per day — that are working at capacity.

Even with those boilers running, the authority sends to the landfill each year several thousand tons of trash that could be burned if the incinerator had more capacity.

The fourth boiler could burn 600 tons per day, said Thomas Adams, the authority's recycling manager.

At the plant, trash is burned to produce steam that generates electricity, which is sold to a power company by the authority.

Waste ash collected at the plant is placed in the county landfill, using just a fraction of the space that would be required to landfill unburned garbage.

The Dvirka & Bartilucci study is expected to:

• Outline the impact on the lifespan of the county landfill of adding or not adding the boiler.

• Estimate tipping fees that would be needed to pay for the boiler.

• Estimate how much revenue from electricity the additional boiler would generate.

"It has to be economically self-sufficient, without us having to charge unreasonable tipping fees," Warner said.

If the authority decides to add the boiler, Warner said, it's likely the county would have to partner, at least initially, with another community or communities to use the boiler to its full capacity.

"When we start, we'll be able to burn 600 tons per day, but we might only be able to provide 100 tons from Lancaster County," Warner said. "We would have to find a source for the other 500 tons. Over time, we would add more of our own, and the other community would reduce theirs."

Warner said he expects the authority to hold public meetings late next year to discuss the idea of expanding the plant to four boilers. He stressed that a decision on the proposal has not been made.

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com