THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412280183
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
On the rare day that nauseating odors hover over the Southeastern Public Service Authority's landfill in Suffolk, think money.
Money? Absolutely! Money that it costs us because it took big bucks to open it, money that it saves us because Suffolk's residential trash is dumped free and its commercial trash is handled at discounted rates, and money that it could cost us if SPSA is forced into the trash-buying business.
Trash buying? That's one option likely to be considered by a task force led by Mayor S. Chris Jones to help redefine the agency's mission.
In the 1970s, when Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach joined with Isle of Wight and Southampton counties to form the authority, trash disposal was a headache. Nobody wanted anybody else's trash, yet it made no sense for each locality to open a landfill.
The response: a huge landfill in Suffolk, fed by trucks hauling trash from homes and convenient collection points. After all, Suffolk was a largely rural, centrally located city with available land.
And as host, the city cut a good deal: no tipping fees, which are assessed to other localities for each ton of their trash; and lower fees for commercial users such as Planters Peanuts and Lipton Inc. The reductions total about $2 million a year - or 11 cents on our real estate tax rate, if it were collected that way.
Now, commercial trash has become especially attractive to private haulers, which discard it in their own landfills. No tipping fees mean businesses can get lower rates, but it also gets to the key question Mayor Jones and others will be trying to answer next year: What kind of disposal service does Hampton Roads want?
Is SPSA to mimic private haulers? Or do citizens want the type agency SPSA has become: an environmentally conscious trash-hauler, landfiller, recycler and power generator?
Actually, the choice already has been made - in this instance, wisely - by government. Landfilling alone is unacceptable, recycling is essential in contemporary refuse disposal and SPSA has a remarkable track record of transforming trash to a commodity.
Among the ways: Its trash-to-steam plant in Portsmouth generates power for the Navy; it makes compost of lawn trash that once devoured landfill space; farm chemicals are handled in sound ways; it recycles items from automobile tires to aluminum cans.
Still, the agency is in trouble. With private haulers grabbing so much commercial trash that at one time poured into the landfill or fed the refuse-to-steam operation, SPSA is losing millions of dollars. Localities could face huge increases to use the landfill.
Or they could encourage Mayor Jones and his task force to follow through on his pledge to put everything on the table.
That could include determination that SPSA has run its course, that privatization is a viable alternative. Of course, a buyer would have to take on SPSA's debt of $274 million, honor its long-term commitments - including Suffolk's privileged dumping - and offer a plan for future expansion.
Expansion is envisioned by SPSA in Suffolk at a cost of more than $300 million, and after permits are procured to expand into an area adjoining the Great Dismal Swamp. (The decrease in volume could delay the expansion.)
As much as we want to contain costs, money isn't the only consideration. In the long run, it may be beneficial for SPSA to buy some of the trash now going into private landfills, not only to meet its own obligations but also to dispose of it smartly.
We can't just keep opening and expanding landfills. Privatization may have a role in SPSA. But remember, this public agency is accountable to member localities. There's more to trash disposal than short-term cheaper rates. MEMO: Comment? You may call the editor any time: 446-2494. by CNB