Tipping fees are headed north and there’s a $2 gate-fee for recycling on the horizon.

The San Juan County Council on Tuesday zeroed-in on a way to raise enough revenue to pay for a list of state-required improvements at the San Juan Island solid-waste transfer station on Sutton Road, as well as its sister station on Orcas, by combining two new money-making strategies with more of the same.

In addition to a gate-fee for recycling, the council decided that levying a so-called “system development fee,” a one-time charge of $1,000 imposed at the time an undeveloped parcel becomes developed, would be an appropriate means to help offset the cost of future demand at each of the three county-run transfer stations. The council agreed to consider waiving that fee for housing projects that provide permanently affordable homes.

In a 5-1 decision, the council endorsed the combination of higher rates and new fees, and directed county staff to craft an ordinance for review at its Jan. 26 meeting, and for possible adoption at a public hearing on Feb. 9.

The ordinance, as proposed, sets the stage for an across-the-board increase that would raise tipping fees by $87 a ton, or 5 cents a pound, for those who self-haul. The per-can rate, the minimum charge, would be $10.25, or $2.25 more than the price paid today. The Town of Friday Harbor and San Juan Sanitation, the county’s franchise hauler, would see their per-ton rate increase by $64.

Councilwoman Lovel Pratt, South San Juan, cast the lone dissenting vote. She said that parcel fee would offer the cash-strapped solid-wate operation a stable source of funding and be an equitable way to spread the cost of repairing and improving the transfer stations, both in the near-term and in the future, among all those that benefit from the service. She fears that a hike in tipping fees could lead to an increase in illegal dumping and environmental degradation.

According to Steve Alexander, manager of Public Works’ solid-waste division, the county must remedy, by July, its pollution-control deficiencies at the Orcas and San Juan transfer stations. Which means, he said, coming up with a fix that prevents water that drains from its garbage collection and disposal system from mixing with stormwater runoff at each of the two facilities. Miss that deadline, he noted, and the county could lose the state-issued permit that allows it to collect, process and dispose of garbage and recycling.

Bringing the Sutton Road facility up to state standards will cost $500,000 or more, Alexander said.

“On Orcas, it’s much fuzzier what we’ll have to do for compliance,” he added.

Until Tuesday, however, the means by which those needed improvements would be financed appeared fuzzy as well. Revenue plummeted this year and at the end of the last as the countywide solid-waste operation collected roughly 2,000 fewer tons of garbage, the equivalent of 4 million pounds, over the past 17 months. Historically, both the day-to-day expenses and so-called “capital” needs of the county solid-waste division have been funded almost entirely – 98 percent – by tipping fees.

The solid-waste division nearly broke even on the operational side of the ledger last year by reducing services and cutting expenses, such as closing the transfer stations on Saturdays. The division enters 2010, however, with a $700,000 deficit in capital expenses in tow.