The purpose of last week’s forum was to work towards updating the solid waste management plan and discuss results of the recent county-wide survey.
Direction of the meeting veered when audience members voiced anger at the county council’s handling of the department, which is $630,000 in the red.
The Department of Public Works has proposed closing Lopez and San Juan’s solid-waste transfer stations in order to cut costs and balance the budget, beginning next year.
“There are dramatic steps by the county … that are pre-empting (updating) this management plan,” said George Post, a former solid waste advisory committee member. “Why are we working towards another plan that will again not be followed? We don’t have the luxury to redesign a plan if we don’t change the current course … the survey shows people want the services, but no one has a clue how to pay for it.”
Despite this year’s fee increases and cutbacks in service, the solid waste division is roughly $630,000 in the hole. Financed almost exclusively by tipping fees, or the price one pays to dispose of garbage, the solid waste operation collected roughly $300,000 less in revenue in 2009 than it did the year before. The council recently enacted a $5 fee that applies to “recycling-only” customers with an expectation of generating roughly $240,000 in additional income.
Though the plans are on the table, closing the San Juan and Lopez solid waste facilities is not a done deal. Other options include operating all three facilities and for the county to get out of running a solid-waste operation all together.
Audience member Walt Corbin said there is an easy financial fix: issue a property tax to pay for the infrastructure of each station.
“The council is destroying the very infrastructure that we’ll need years from now,” he said.
Survey results
Solid waste planners Elizabeth Anderson and Steve Alexander asked audience members to break into groups to go over results of the survey and list their own solid waste priorities.
Return rate for the survey was 26 percent; it was mailed to half the households in the county (4,000) this summer. Analysis showed respondents desire a high level of solid waste service that places a greater emphasis on reuse and recycling. The full survey results can be viewed at sanjuanco.com/swmp/meetingnotes.aspx. A copy of the report is also available at local libraries.
One of the primary goals of those at the forum was to reduce waste that San Juan County produces. Possible ways to do that included at-home composting, large composting facilities on each island, and reusing construction waste.
“Whatcom County subsidized composting digesters, and made them nearly free,” said Dan Liedecker, co-owner of San Juan Sanitation. “They went like hot cakes.”
Audience members also advocated keeping each island’s transfer station open, supporting the infrastructure with a property tax, establishing a solid waste district on each island, and implementing better management and professionalism at each facility.
Anderson and Alexander hoped this would be the first of more solid waste forums.
“We want a new dynamic with public involvement,” Alexander said. “We’re trying not to blow it with you.”
How to comment
Email elizabetha@sjcpublicworks.org or call 370-0531.
