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City of Spokane
Response Page
Recycling?
We tried to sell the WTE Plant on
eBay -
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Unanswered Questions
Typical Runaround
Related
Articles:
Life & Times of WTE
Balance Due
Rising from the Ash
Waste Management
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Why are
Spokane County's dump fees nearly the highest in the nation? |
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All the garbage from the entire Spokane County is under the strict monopoly
control of an organization called the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System
(aka "the System"), which has the power to levy fines for
non-compliance of System rules. The System is owned and operated solely by
the City of Spokane, but it is wholly financed by the ratepayers in Spokane
County, of which 54% do not live within the city. Not surprisingly, the
System insists that all garbage in Spokane County must go to the City of
Spokane, at the outrageous price of $98.00 per ton -
and the System projects losses of $9 million dollars for the year 2009!
Why $98.00 per ton,
when the national average is just $45 per ton? Because the System pays the City of Spokane over $12
million ($30/ton) to run the transfer stations and NS Landfill, and for administration fees, rebates,
perks, etc., plus another $17.4 million ($60/ton) for the city's debt on the
waste-to-energy plant and to close Spokane's old Northside Landfill. The System also pays
Wheelabrator $13 million ($48/ton) to operate
Spokane's waste-to-energy plant, and then pays
Rabanco $4
million ($45/ton) to haul ash from the plant to a landfill. That's $47
million ($150/ton) in costs to produce $12 million in electricity sales. Even worse, the waste-to-energy plant can only
handle 3/4 of our garbage, and it will cost anther $70 million dollars to expand the
facility.
What did we get for all that money? A
worn out incinerator that dumps
130 million pounds of carbon into the atmosphere
every year. That's TWICE the carbon (and
nearly as much fossil carbon) as a coal fired plant releases, and equivalent to an extra
47,000 cars on the road! They also pollute us with tons of sulfur
and nitrous oxides, plus hundreds of pounds of mercury and lead. They say
they're turning waste into energy, but....86% of
the energy goes towards heating the atmosphere!.
Wheelabrator designed the facility to be inefficient because they are paid
by the ton to burn garbage, not to produce electricity.
Now that's a waste of energy! |
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When we first looked into the numbers for the Spokane
Regional Solid Waste System (SRSWS), our initial impression was
that something illegal must be going on. Upon further
investigation, we may not be able to rule out criminal activity,
but we do believe SRSWS is operating under one of the most
inept business plans ever conceived. The main beneficiaries of
this bizarre scheme are Wheelabrator (Waste Management), and the
City of Spokane, which uses the System to subsidize its
utilities department (solid waste, streets, water), increase it's tax base
and to buy hundreds of millions in property and equipment for the City.
Analysis:
Solid waste is delivered, and
the ash is hauled away at no cost to the Facility, and yet SRSWS
spends $14.2 Million to
operate
the WTE Facility to produces $12.1
Million worth of
electricity. When the lucrative contract* with
Puget Sound
Electric
expires, it's highly probable that the Facility will produce even less
revenue (around $6 million at today's rates). It is our opinion that the Facility will never produce
enough revenue to pay for it's own operation. Placing a Waste to
Energy Plant in an area flush with cheap non-polluting electricity seems like
an odd decision.
$98 a ton "tipping fees" are the highest in
the State, and one of the highest in the
entire Nation. Of that $98 dollars, $15 per ton is earmarked for
closing landfills, but the city of Spokane takes a third of that
as a rebate. The remaining $83 per ton ends up benefiting only
the City of Spokane, Waste Management or Rabanco, with only
$0.60 per ton benefiting the County (Litter Control)
Non-city residents of
Spokane County will have paid over 50% of the
$250,000,000 to finance the waste-to-energy facility
and transfer stations, and will have
0% ownership. It will be
fully owned by the City of Spokane. It is our opinion that
Regional Cities and the County should break with the City of
Spokane and form a more coherent and efficient Solid Waste
Disposal System. |
*Puget Sound Electric's basic rate to it's customers is 6.75
cents/kwh, but has to buy it from SRSWS for 8.5 cents. PSE
would be nuts to renew that contract. We'll be lucky if they
don't try to break the current one. Local Avista customer rates
were just increased to
around 6.5 cents/kwh. |
You may email the Waste of Energy Czar at
Garbage, Solid Waste, Trash, Dump,
Landfill etc.
Spokane Municipal Governments.
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