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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 07271993 - 1.69 13 CA, SIERRA CLUB 0 SAN FRANCISCO BAY CHAPTER 5237 COLLEGE AVENUE - OAKLAND. CALIFORNIA 94618-1 ii i TELEPHONE: 510-053-6127 ti ALAMEDA C01 'F IN FRANCIS(:() 92-141 12 July 1993 Honorable Tom Torlakson, Chair AL 1503 f 4 Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors 651 Pine Street, Room 107 CLERK BOARD OF SUPERV190RSI. Martinez CA 94553 Facilitating DiscussiodgLE—TAM-1 1-11 C ing Surcharges Dear Supervisor Torlakson: I am enclosing a contribution to the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors from the Sierra Club in the amount of$50.00 to help defray the expense of a professional facilitator who can assist the County, its eighteen cities, at least six sanitary districts, three sub-county joint powers authorities for solid waste, and the recently-inaugurated countywide Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority in discussions of solid waste issues. One member of your Board suggested that the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club could assist in resolving such politically volatile concerns as costs, liabilities, and profitability of Acme and Keller. As you will recall, on June 22nd, the Audubon Society's Conservation Vice President, Al McNabney, and 1, on behalf of the Sierra Club, communicated to your Board our organizations' concerns that several Contra Costa cities appear unwilling to direct their wastes to the County I s only state-of-the-art landfill, Keller Canyon, and to the Acme Transfer Station (where the tipping fee is currently $75.97 per ton), because of tentative offers from at least one out-of-state landfill to accept wastes for around $50 per ton, including transfer by rail. Acme Fill and BFI responded to publicity given to claims of cheaper out-of-state landfill by offering on May 12th to drop the Acme tipping fee by $16.97 per ton, to $59 per ton, if your Board will rescind the three $2 per ton surcharges for open space, transportation, and host community impact mitigation. This would bring Keller's tipping fee below the import tipping fees paid by San Francisco at Altamont and Berkeley at Vasco of$59.45 per ton. The Acme/BFI offer appears to be in good faith, and should be an item of discussion by the local governments concerned about high tipping fees. Knowing where the bulk of Contra Costa's wastes will go is essential to maintain the financial integrity of the County's Integrated Waste Management Plan; failure to resolve it could lead to delays in many cities attaining their state-mandated 25%landfill diversion goals by 1995 (AB 939, Sher, 1989). We think all local governments in the county should also pull together toward the common objective of long-term disposal of the unrecycled portion of the county's more than 3000 tons per day of municipal solid waste in a manner that has the least adverse impact on both natural and built environments and on the attainment of the social goal of a recycling society, as notably embodied in AB 939,which also requires all local governments to divert one-half of their solid waste tonnage from disposal by the year 2000. The Club believes that the surcharges are unrelated to specific impacts of the landfill, and could very well succumb to a legal challenge on grounds they are new taxes adopted without a two-thirds vote of the electorate. Of more immediate consequence, they lead to an overpricing of disposal service to Contra Costa businesses and residents of almost 9% -)A- (tpikk Honorable Tom Torlakson page two July 12, 1993 Facilitating Discussion of Landfill Issues, Including Surcharges ($6.60 per ton, including the 60 cents imposed by the 10% franchise fee). It is apparent this overpncin�increases the interest of some decisionmakers in exporting solid waste to the Great Basin. Whether or not export would be substantially cheaper is questionable; much could depend on the price of transportation, and that in turn on the price of diesel fuel. Moreover,export of wastes contradicts the fundamental environmental principle of treating wastes as close to the source of generation as is technically feasible and environmentally acceptable. There are enough new faces among elected city and county officials that it should be useful to review in some depth Deloitte-Touche's findings, as a means of evaluating BFI's subdued but unmistakably sincere objections that they were not receiving a fair rate of return on equity. In view of BFI's proposal to drop $11.97 from its own tip fee revenues by restructuring equity project financing to take advantage of a requested long-term commitment by local governments a year after those protests, it makes sense to have another Deloitte-Touche review of Keller Canyon finances. Remember that the 1992 review led to a substantial reduction in BFI's return on equity, and to the elimination of any ratepayer contribution to a percentage of gross landfill revenues to either the landfill developer or other parties. Although one supervisor suggested the Board should not even reopen such discussions because of pending litigation, there must be some way to do this that serves the public interest. Sincerely, DAVID I. TAM, Chair (510/655-6775) SF Bay Chapter Solid Waste Subcommittee Enclosure SF Bay Chapter Sierra Club Check #753, 12 July 1993, $50.00 for facilitating discussion of landfill issues, including surcharges Contra Costa Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority County ANNOUNCE A WORKSHOP TO DELINEATE ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES . For SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN CONTRA COSTA COUNTY* Thursday, July 29, 1993 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Golden Gate Room George Gordon Center 500 Court Street, Martinez PURPOSE: be Identify ways to streamline the different aspects of solid waste management to eliminate or reduce overlap/duplication. In what ways could public agencies and private sector work to streamline, reduce costs, work together more effectively? be In what ways can independent/individual jurisdiction decision making be provided for while building an interdependent and cooperative solid waste management organizational structure? * Contra Costa County/Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority Memorandum of Agreement/Work Plan: Task # 1. WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS: • Contra:Costa County Board of Supervisors/ Staff Contra`Costa Solid Waste Authorit,; /Staff • Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority / Staff • West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority/Staff All elected officials, staff, private sector and general public are urged to attend. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL: Louise Aiello: 646-1550 Avon Wilson: 229-9113 Distribution: Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Citylfown Councils Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority Sanitary Districts Board of Directors Central Costra Costa Solid Waste Authority West Contra Costa integrated Waste AB 939 Task Force Management Authority AB 939 Project Managers Times Community Calendar Waste Haulers CONTRA COSTA SOLID WASTE AUTHORITY Wednesday, July 7, 1993 4:36 p.m. PARK PLACE 1395 Civic Drive Walnut Creek TENTATIVE AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ATTENDANCE 3. ADOPTION OF AGENDA 4. PUBLIC COMMENT This section of the agenda is provided for the public to express comments on items not on the Agenda or the Consent Calendar, which are of interest to the citizens of Contra Costa County and within the jurisdiction of the Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority. Comments should not exceed three minutes. 5. CONSENT CALENDAR These are items which are considered to be routine and non-controversial and which can be acted on in one consolidated motion. Any item may be removed by Board, staff or audience and acted on separately. a. Minutes and Attendance of June 2, 1993 Recommendation: Board Approve. b. Register of Demands Recommendation: Board Approve. C. June 1993 Activity Report Recommendation: Board Review and File S. JOINT COUNTY - AUTHORITY MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT WORK PROGRAM AND RELATED ISSUES: Supervisors Bishop, McPeak and Authority Board Members a. Distribution of Workbook for Thursday, July 29, 1993 Task #1 Workshop - Joint County/Authority Staff Presentation; Discussion by Supervisors and Authority Board. b. Memorandum of Agreement Work Plan - Status Report 1 ) Ratification and Signing 2) Progress on Tasks #2 and #3 Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority June 2, 1993 Tentative Agenda Page Two C. Countywide Integrated Waste Management Plan Report from Sub-committee: Chair Mariotti and Vice-Chair Rainey d Household Hazardous Waste Mobile Collection Program Status of Signups and Martinez Collection Weekend 7. STATUS REPORTS a. Ratification of Authority Joint Powers Authority Agreement - Staff, b. Member Assessments for 5/1/93 - 12/31/93 Budget - Staff, Letter from Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. Recommendation: Send letter to District Board Members; commending their generous support and thanking them for their continued in lieu support of Authority activities. 9. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 10. OTHER DISCUSSION ITEMS 11. CORRESPONDENCE 12. CHAIR AND BOARD MEMBER REPORTS 13. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS/MEETING SCHEDULE Recommendation: Board consider cancelling August 4, 1993 Regular Meeting and rescheduling the September 1, 1993 Regular Meeting to September 8, 1993. 14. ADJOURNMENT: 6:30 p.m. Adjourn to Work Plan Task #1 Special Workshop on July 29, 1993 at 4:00 p.m. to be held at the George Gordon Center; 500 Court Street, Martinez. Denotes Joint Supervisor/Authority Board Work Programfitems of Mutual Interest 1, AVON M. WILSON, DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THIS AGENDA WAS POSTED AT LEAST 72 HOURS IN ADVANCE AT THE AUTHORITY OFFICES, 4737 IMHOFF CE, SUITE 4, M TINEZ, CALIFORNIA.