SPSA Ready to Take in Out-of-State Trash to Pay Bills
By Scott Harper, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Dec. 2–Local leaders have given a green light to the regional waste authority for negotiating deals to bring more out-of-state garbage to South Hampton Roads for disposal.
The Southeastern Public Service Authority, a public agency that previously has eschewed imported trash, said it has little choice these days. SPSA is facing a $1 million budget shortfall and has warned that local garbage rates could be increased again this fiscal year — they already have jumped once, by 13 percent — unless more money is found.
SPSA’s executive director, John Hadfield , said he expects to begin discussions next week to accept household garbage from as far away as Boston and Delaware and as close as Williamsburg and York County.
For a fee, expected to be less than $17 per ton , the trash would be burned at an incinerator plant in Portsmouth, with the resulting steam and electricity also sold.
SPSA’s Board of Directors — consisting of elected officials from Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Franklin, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County — voted 7-1 on Tuesday for a one-year plan to boost trash imports.
The strategy calls for shipments to be limited to 450 tons per day , requires that they be brought in by truck, and mandates that no garbage be relayed to a proposed mega-landfill in Camden County, N.C. — a project that Chesapeake City Hall is fighting in court as environmentally threatening.
The lone dissenting vote came from Virginia Beach’s board member, Michael Barrett . He said he is concerned about “continuing to feed the beast” — meaning that SPSA is increasingly relying on its incinerator to raise money in tight times, even though the plant is expensive to operate and, on paper, has shown financial losses in recent years.
“I don’t see how, economically, we can afford to keep doing that,” Barrett said.
He also said the timing of the out-of-state waste plan is wrong.
SPSA is in the midst of renegotiating contracts with local waste companies for the delivery of commercial trash; SPSA now collects $42 per ton . When the companies discover that SPSA is willing to take less than $17 per ton from out-of-state sources, they surely are going to insist on similar rates, Barrett said.
“I can’t conceive of putting ourselves in this trap,” he said, “but that’s where we’re going.”
SPSA’s plan comes as environmental groups are trying to curtail waste imports to Virginia, which are the second highest in the nation. Only Pennsylvania handles more out-of-state trash, though that state is showing recent declines while Virginia’s haul continues to grow.
Virginia received more than 7.7 million tons of imported waste in 2004 , up from 4.6 million tons in 1998 , according to state figures. Maryland, New York and Washington were the biggest exporters to Virginia.
From July 2004 to July 2005, SPSA accepted more than 36,000 tons of “out-of-area” waste; the agency uses the term “out of area” to describe its imports, saying most comes from other sections of Virginia.
Yet, imports are down about 40 percent since July, when compared with the same period last year, along with revenues from the out-of-state program — declines the new plan is expected to stop, officials said.
Most waste facilities in Virginia that accept out-of-state trash are privately held. SPSA is one of the few, if any, public entities that takes imported garbage.
Prince William County and Page County used to handle such wastes, but both have stopped, said Jim Sharp , executive director of Campaign Virginia, an environmental group opposed to out-of-state trash shipments.
“It’s usually for the same reason — financial pressures lead officials to go after a quick and easy fix by encouraging imports,” Sharp said.
To curb imports, Sharp is pushing for a bill in Congress introduced by U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis , a Newport News Republican. The legislation would empower states to enact waste limits, but so far, the bill has not advanced.
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