To: San Juan County WA Councilors Lovell Pratt, Howie Rosenfeld, Patty Miller, Richard Fralick, Rich Peterson and Jamie Stephens
RE: ORCAS SOLID WASTE TRANSFER STATION NEGOTIATIONS WITH SAN JUAN COUNTY
Dear Council Members:
The San Juan County Council asked County staff to negotiate two contracts, one with Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) and one with Cimarron Trucking, to satisfy the requirements of the recent RFP for the Orcas Solid Waste Transfer Station. Thank you for that!
Recently County staff members met, privately and jointly, with ORS and Cimarron in limited negotiations closed to the press and public. After two meetings with ORS present, one of which included Cimarron Trucking, these negotiations were apparently declared ‘concluded’ on September 6.
The solution we proposed during negotiations was simple, and feasible, and financially valuable to all parties:
The RFP requirements will be divided between ORS and Cimarron as follows:
Orcas Recycling Services will operate the tipping floor and scales, as well as develop recycling for the County
Cimarron Trucking will continue to provide trucking and disposal services to the operation, as they have in the past.
Both County staff and Cimarron proposed, instead, that Cimarron Trucking had been selected (by whom was unclear) for all major revenue-generating aspects of the transfer station, including the tipping floor, and that ORS would be considered only to provide reuse and recycling services.
We regret that the only option presented ORS is not financially viable. Without the revenue generated by garbage, recycling generally loses money (although it may pay for itself over time, given funding to explore and build a variety of up-cycling revenue streams.)
The ORS not-for-profit business model is designed to reduce the amount of solid waste shipped off-island, and to specifically serve our County’s adopted goals and our citizens’ wishes. The ORS proposal submitted to San Juan County specifies local jobs and services, lower rates for citizens, profits re-invested into the community, education programs, and innovative processing systems chosen for their efficiency.
It is logical and critical that ORS operate the Orcas Transfer Station and use tipping fees to support reuse, recycle and up-cycle revenue stream development, and that Cimarron continue to provide trucking and disposal services. If garbage and recyclables are separated into two operations, the overall cost to the end user is significantly higher due to the need to pay for two managing bodies. Tip fees would need to be set higher for recyclables, undermining any economic incentive to recycle.
Our concern and objective is that the citizens of San Juan County receive as many quality options and absorb as few costs as possible in the operation of the Orcas Transfer Station. We stand ready to proceed expeditiously and to meet all deadlines.
If Cimarron is granted the contract for the tipping floor, as well as the hauling and disposal of our waste, tipping fee revenues will leave San Juan County, and our rights to self-determination will be lost.”*
We request that the Council provide for back-up contracts in this case.
Orcas Recycling Services requests and invites further discussion with the County to examine all scenarios, including shared operations with Cimarron, which are financially beneficial to all parties and of benefit to the citizens we all serve.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors, Orcas Recycling Services
Pete Moe, Chair
Errol Speed Jared Lovejoy Michael Greenberg
Ian Harlow Jeff Ludwig Susan Malins
*From the final draft of the San Juan County Solid Waste Plan:
Goal 9.C. Provide island communities with greater opportunities for self-determination.
Objective. Develop opportunities for more local control of operations, including leasing county facilities, establishing disposal districts, and partnerships with not-for-profit organizations.
The Exchange’s letter cogently presents an option so aligned with Orcas’s public interest it is truly difficult to imagine why San Juan County would not agree with The Exchange’s proposal. I hope citizens wake up and urge the Council to adopt a plan that actually protects their best interests, as The Exchanges plan does!! Choosing Cimmaron really makes no sense.
The ORS-Exchange letter makes simple, good-sense proposals that better serve the interests of residents on Orcas. Regrettably, the soundness and logic of their proposals are likely to fall upon the deaf ears of the County Council and County staff, who appear intent on implementing an earlier-determined course of action.
Local operation and local control are critical to support local initiatives of improved recycling and reduced waste. The ORS-Exchange proposal increases the possibility that these objectives will be achieved.
I urge County staff, and particularly members of the Council to objectively consider the proposals presented by ORS-Exchange.