THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140489
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER AND MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Facing a possible $11 million loss during the next year at the hands of private trash haulers, the Southeastern Public Service Authority today is expected to suggest several money-making alternatives, including nearly doubling the dumping fees charged to local cities.
Durwood S. Curling, executive director of SPSA, said Tuesday that private haulers are dumping Hampton Roads' trash in private landfills outside the region, depriving SPSA of millions of dollars in tipping fees.
``The situation is critical,'' Curling said. ``It's going to have a tremendous impact on managing the remaining waste in the area. With the loss of waste involved, the communities are looking at paying as much as $11 million for waste disposal by July 1.''
SPSA predicts that if 80 percent of the waste it receives from private haulers goes elsewhere, the agency could lose $8.8 million. If all of the waste is diverted from the regional landfill, SPSA officials say, the cost could be $11 million.
Without a large enough waste stream, the agency also risks defaulting on contract to supply the Navy with a certain amount of refuse-derived fuel each year. Losing the contract would cost SPSA millions of dollars more.
Private waste haulers collect about 53 percent of the solid waste in the SPSA service area of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Franklin and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties. The companies pay SPSA for use of its regional landfill in Suffolk.
For the past two decades, private haulers have willingly delivered loads to SPSA.
Now, however, there are five privately owned landfills east of Interstate 95 in Virginia. In addition, Chambers Development Co. recently opened a transfer station in Norfolk and has begun to haul garbage to its landfill in Charles City County. The region's other two large private haulers - Browning-Ferris Industries and Waste Management of Hampton Roads - are building transfer stations in Chesapeake that Curling expects to be open by July.
Jim Leonard, a spokesman at Chambers' headquarters in Pittsburgh, said that SPSA has sent Chambers a proposal on the disposal situation and that Chambers has made its own proposal. He declined to discuss details.
The money-making alternatives expected to be announced by Curling today at SPSA's monthly meeting include:
Obtaining a subsidy from each city based on how much trash it generates.
Increasing the municipal tipping fee to make up the shortfall caused by the loss of commercial waste to privately owned landfills.
Allowing SPSA to begin commercial trash collection to help recapture some of the waste being lost to private landfills.
Currently, SPSA collects and disposes of residential trash only. Private haulers handle the region's commercial waste.
Curling said that if tipping fees are increased, local cities could pay as much as $60 or $70 per ton rather than the current $34.
Cities likely would pass on the cost increase to residents, most of whom pay for trash removal through direct billing or city property taxes. However, because the cities could pay for the increase in various ways, there is no way of knowing how much more residents might be charged.
Kristen Lentz, Norfolk's assistant director of public works, said some of the money could be recovered through the city's general fund and other sources. Norfolk's fee for trash pickup is $74.04 a year per residence.
The city of Suffolk pays SPSA no tipping fees because the regional landfill is located there.
SPSA caps Virginia Beach's tipping fee because the city operates an ash disposal landfill for the agency. Should the fee increase, Curling said, Virginia Beach would pay $34.85 per ton next year and $41 per ton as of July 1996. The rest of the region would pay nearly twice that.
Curling said that if the agency raises the member communities' fees, he will ask that the tipping fee for private haulers remain at or near the current $41 per ton in an effort to draw them back to the SPSA landfill.
SPSA, formed in 1973 by the eight member communities, has been facing the loss of revenue to private haulers for about a year.
In November 1993, Chambers delivered 8,860 tons of trash to the SPSA landfill. This November, the figure dropped to 1,745 tons, an 80 percent reduction and a loss for SPSA of about $292,000. Projected over 12 months, the loss of Chambers' business alone cuts $3.5 million from SPSA's income.
``Our job is to provide the lowest disposal cost to the residents,'' said Leonard, the Chambers spokesman. ``We decided to take it to our own facility because it's more cost-effective - not only to our company, but to the residents themselves.'' MEMO: SPSA WILL CONSIDER:
Getting a subsidy from each city based on how much trash it
generates.
Increasing municipal tipping fees - perhaps to $60 or $70 per ton, up
from the current $34. Cities probably would pass the cost increase on to
residents.
Beginning commercial trash collection.
KEYWORDS: SOUTHEASTERN PUBLIC SERVICE AUTHORITY GARBAGE TRASH
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