Garbage rates could increase if county commissioners approve new waste facility - KEZI TV

Garbage rates could increase if county commissioners approve new waste facility | Local | kezi.com

LANE COUNTY, Ore. - Rate payers could see an increase in their garbage rates over at least the next six years if Lane County commissioners approve a contract to build a new waste processing facility.

Lane County Waste Management and Bulk Handling Systems will propose a contract that will be voted on by county commissioners to build an integrated material and energy recovery facility.

The goal of the processing facility is to divert tens of thousands of tons of waste away from the Short Mountain Landfill, the only permitted municipal landfill in the county.

Dan Hurley is the director of Lane County Public Works. He said the main purpose of the facility is to extend the lifespan of the Short Mountain Landfill.

"The proposed waste processing facility would take in about 160,000 tons of waste and process and pull out things that shouldn't be there, that don't need to be in the landfill," he said. "So recyclable materials, food waste, those sorts of things would come out and it'll be able to extend the life of the landfill by 20 years."

In recent years, Lane County Waste Management has had to reshape the outer slopes of the landfill to lower seismic risk. Hurley said waste in the landfill is unstable and packed down with an unstable clay that could all cause a landslide if a powerful earthquake were to occur. Reshaping the slopes has reduced space and thus cut the lifespan of the landfill from over 120 years down to 70 years.

On top of extending the life span of the landfill, the proposed new processing facility would also reduce methane emissions and provide construction and industry jobs.

But the planned project has faced some push back from other waste industry companies.

Travis St. Clair is a recycling services representative for the International Paper recycling plant in Springfield. He spoke up at a Springfield City Council meeting opposing the construction of the proposed waste processing facility. He said the cost of financing of the $130 million plant ($35 million being paid by the county) would be passed down to all rate payers in the county.

"The costs, the impacts it'll have not just to individual rate payers but to hospitals, restaurants that already have razor thin margins," he said.

These are the same concerns shared by Sanipac, Lane County's largest waste hauler. They provided KEZI 9 with their public letter detailing their opposition to the planned waste facility. They shared their calculations of rates they believe would be the increase in numbers rate payers would get.

On the low end, residential garbage rates would increase by 10%, 13% for commercial garbage rates and 20% increases for on construction and industrial garbage rates.

Sanipac's calculated garbage rate increases for rate payers if the contract for the new facility is approved by county commissioners.

This differs from the rates given by Hurley to city councilors and county commissioners, saying rate payers will only notice slight increases in rates over the next few years as the facility is being built.

He also made the point that the facility is a generational investment. If Short Mountain Landfill runs out of space several decades from now, it's unlikely another landfill will be approved to open, and Lane County's waste would be diverted out of the county, and costs of that would take its toll.

"Most likely our waste will need to be transported hundreds of miles at a cost probably double of what we're paying now," he said. "The material will probably need to be transported to the Portland area and a couple hundred miles out to eastern Oregon."

According to Hurley, on November 20 when asked by Springfield city councilors if there has been any public input on this proposed facility, although he says they've been working on it for years and has given updates at public meetings they never held any public forum for input on this multi-million-dollar project.

The Lane County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the contract and new garbage rates on Tuesday, December 5.