Our County

 BEAVER HILL SOLID WASTE FACILITY

 

I have supported, do support, and will continue to support, the operation of the Coos County Solid Waste Facility as an incinerator site. Although it was created in 2009 the information on my website concerning our facility is still very valid. I want the facility to continue to operate independent of the general fund and I realize that incidents like the one we just experienced make that a challenge at this time, but I believe it can and should continue to operate as an incinerator facility.

 

The options that will be researched by the advisory committee this time will likely be the same as the ones they, and Kevin Stufflebean, looked at in 2009. I believe one of those options will be to operate the BHDS as a transfer site. I don’t believe the county can operate a transfer site without Waste Connections, and Waste Connections will have no incentive to bring waste to us. They will, as they did before, want to operate the site themselves. This will not only give them majority control, it will force competitors to do business with them or increase their transportation costs significantly to haul to alternative locations.

 

The citizens of Coos County purchased this facility with their tax dollars, showed overwhelming support for its continued operation two years ago, and I believe they will again. Our facility provides an environmentally acceptable way to dispose of our counties waste, significantly reduces volume, and offers some control in complying with “cradle to grave” responsibility. Scott Murray stated to the World News that facilities like ours typically have a shelf life of 20 years. That may be good information to use if you are trying to gain tax payer support for major repairs or a new facility but the reality is burners 2 & 3 have been operating for 31 years and still meet all DEQ requirements. In 2009 a feasibility study was done to assess the viability of our facility, and while much of the information such as cost of operation, room left in the ash trench, etc. was wrong it was made clear that the facility was in good condition and could easily be expected to operate for another 15 to 20 years with routine maintenance. The breakdown that we recently experienced at the Beaver Hill Facility was not due to age related fatigue, it was due to the introduction of the wrong cleaning agent into our hot oil system by a company contracted to clean it, and while our insurance company will likely have to pay for the repairs, this contracted company should be made to repay our insurance company.

 

Over the past year Waste Connections has significantly reduced the volume of garbage they have historically brought to our facility. Since his appointment I have met several times with Commissioner Parry to discuss options available for replacing the revenue associated with this lost volume. The main option I discussed was something that Lane County applied to their commercial haulers when they attempted to stop hauling to county operated transfer sites. Lane County adopted a “system benefit tax” that would be applied to all waste that was not brought to their transfer sites. They based their assessments on the difference between historical data and current data. The Lane County Commissioners were effectively saying that commercial haulers could take garbage anywhere the wished but they would have to pay the county for the lost tonnage that they had historically agreed to. As I told Commissioner Parry we have such historical data and I believe that like Lane County it would simply require the drafting of similar language and adoption by a majority of our commissioners.

 

Since having these discussions with Commissioner Parry Beaver Hill Solid Waste has purchased equipment that allows us to remove metal from the ash in our trench which we then recycle, we have been sifting throughout this last summer and Scott Murray has stated that he anticipates there is in excess of 1 million dollars in recyclable metal in the trench. This is an additional source of revenue from what we normally generate. Commissioner Parry and Scott Murray have also stated that we are close to a final agreement with Douglas County to begin receiving their refuse. I’m told it could be as much as 5,000 tons per year which would likely replace the lost tonnage from Waste Connections which means that by replacing the lost Waste Connections revenue with Douglas County revenue monies received from the “system benefit tax” and metal recycle could be applied to system maintenance, equipment upgrade and replacement, and final closure costs.

 

In 2001 when discussions were held regarding the potential of closing the Beaver Hill facility then commissioners Pete DeMain, John Griffith, and Nikki Whitty convened a meeting that also included former commissioners Gordon Ross, Jack Beebe, and Bev Owen. The commissioners said that shipping all of Coos Bay resident’s garbage to a landfill outside of Coos County could put the Beaver Hill facility out of business and lead to costly closure fees and the loss of county jobs. Such a shutdown could also have adverse effects on businesses within the county. The commissioners said they were attempting to keep Beaver Hill open in order to maintain local control over garbage disposal. In 1994 the voters approved a 7 million dollar bond to upgrade the facility. Gordon Ross explained that at the time the commissioners looked at shipping the garbage to a landfill outside of Coos County but opted for the incinerator improvements. Bev Owen said “I thought shipping the garbage to another site was a good idea. A lot of people feared that if we closed down our site we would never get it back.” The commissioners said that concern was still valid. Commissioner Griffith said environmental precautions associated with shutting down the incinerators would cost the county $1 million. He added the county spends $400,000 of Beaver Hills yearly revenue to monitor the impacts of the county’s garbage facilities on the environment. That monitoring has to continue for as much as 30 years after final closure.

 

The following is historical yearly tonnage data for Coos County Solid Waste:

FY 01-02           23,552.74                              FY 06-07           23,079.74

FY 02-03           24,266.15                              FY 07-08           22,479.73

FY 03-04           23,880.46                              FY 08-09           22,293.85

FY 04-05           23,427.60                              FY 09-10           20,339.50

FY 05-06           23,825.40                              FY 10-11           18,011.36

 

From these totals we can easily see the averages from FY 01-02 through FY 08-09 are consistent and that they begin to fall off in FY 09-10 and are significantly lower in FY 10-11. It is from the consistent averages that I believe a system benefits tax could be established.

 

In 1994 the Coos County commissioners realized the right of the citizens to decide the fate of the Beaver Hill facility and they chose overwhelmingly to upgrade and keep the site open. In 2001 the commissioners again acknowledged that the citizens desired to keep the facility open and operated by the county. And again in 2009 citizens filled the rooms and spoke overwhelmingly in favor of the continued operation of the BHDS. I believe the opinion of the citizens of Coos County are the same today as they were in 1994, 2001, and 2009 and I  feel that the fate of the BHDS should only be decided by ALL the citizens of Coos County.