Exchange Supporters Pack County Council Meet

The fire engine garage at the Eastsound Fire Station was packed as proponents of “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” gathered en masse to support the Orcas Island Exchange.

The occasion was an official meeting of the San Juan County Council on Orcas Island on Feb. 8.

After determining by a show of hands that virtually all of the 300-strong crowd that packed the Fire Hall were there to give the Council a loud and clear message of “hands-off” the Exchange, Council Chair Richard Fralick attempted to limit speakers to three minutes each so that as many speakers as possible could be heard.

Although the Exchange was not on the agenda, its supporters came out to voice their concern that it not be sacrificed as the County struggles to finance its solid waste disposal operations.

County Public Works Director Jon Shannon summarized the county’s solid waste disposal situation as —  basically —  less garbage in, less revenue to operate waste disposal operations.

Jon Shannon, Director of Public Works, brought the meeting up to speed, saying, “We do have a solid waste funding issue,” and “To all those holding ‘Reduce through Re-use’ signs – Bless you all.”

He described “the garbage paradox”:  “For at least a decade, 100% of the revenue to operate the [solid waste disposal] system comes from tipping fees we collect in garbage….As we reduce waste, we reduce our revenue.”

The recent decline in garbage has proved “a great test case: what would happen if everyone recycled and reduced so there was no more garbage?” Shannon told the group that in 2009, the garbage volume dropped dramatically – to the same amount (10,300 tons of garbage) as was processed in 2001. (Later in the meeting it was noted that in 2001, the transfer station was open only 3 days a week, as it is now, after recent budget cuts).

Shannon said that the Council is looking at sustainability and funding sources not dependent on ever increasing volume of garbage. “There has been no discussion on closing or diminishing the role of the Exchange.”

He expressed the hope that the county will “find a way to fund the system in a future where waste reduction is possible, not because of economics, but because we choose not to bury our waste in a landfill.”

In addition to the decline in operations revenue, an equally troubling problem is capital funding,  both to keep the infrastructure in place and more recently, to comply with new environmental regulations at the San Juan Island transfer station.

Aside from its rundown condition, Fralick said that in the last two years, new regulations in regard to stormwater runoff and transfer have added to “a significant need for new revenue.” The solid waste disposal operations is now showing an $800,000 deficit county-wide.

As only a handful of attendees came specifically for the planned agenda items – the Eastsound Planning Review Committee report and the proposed Country Corner (LAMIRD (Limited Area of More Intense Rural Development), Fralick then opened the hearing to public comment.

Many of the speakers provided solutions as well as praise and perspective:

• Bill Gincig said, the more fees are increased, the less people will bring to the dump.
• Rich Becker asked why the Exchange “has to close just because the dump does.”
• Maria Papademetriou read the Council the vision statement of the County Comprehensive Plan regarding energy and resources. She criticized a move toward curbside pickup (as has been proposed to the Council for San Juan Island), as increasing the burden on the ferry system, and suggested that the public would be willing pay “a few more dollars in taxes to sustain” the Exchange’s vision to “reduce, recycle and reuse.”
• Frank Stratton, a retired, licensed environmental and civil engineer, said, “We have to realize solid waste is a utility just as water and sewer is a proper utility….I believe, regretfully, we need a small property tax in the long run….The concept of self-haul is fundamentally important in the work that we do on the island; it brings people together with the understanding of minimizing waste.
• Andrea Cohen read an “Ode to the Exchange”
• Robin Di Georgio said that the current model now used by the county “encourages people to be lazy and irresponsible with their garbage.” She recommended a new business model that supports “reducing the waste stream, and creating a larger Exchange that would encompass jobs and money.” She was one of several to suggest that compost could be processed from the food waste at the transfer station on Orcas.
• Jim Hamilton said, “There is no such thing as trash, only a lack of imagination.” He thanked George Post for starting the Exchange and suggested that revenue could come from “showing other communities how it happened.”
• Pete Moe, Director of Funhouse and a member of the County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, thanked the Council for their working, recognizing they were “under tremendous pressure to make the budget balance this year… The problem is that the business model of the garbage system is a flawed model as long as it’s dependent on a tipping fee, we’ll never be able to “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’ as we should.”
  Moe criticized the Council rejection of plans to build “a really great transfer station,” on San Juan Island. “Let’s think about a way to move the County toward a more comprehensive “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’ program.
• George Post received a standing ovation from the packed room and said, “If only you’d been at all the solid waste meetings I’ve been to.” He objected to small number of meetings that are held on Orcas Island and said, “You can’t make decisions over there that affect us over here without some sort of reaction. The real issue is that… the funding problem has precipitated a series of decisions that go continually toward another model of waste management… it’s kept the council from considering what will happen when we reduce the waste.
  “Now, because of the economic situation, we’re having to consider another model. We should go back to the goals of the Comprehensive Solid Waste Plan and of experience, and not to some special interest decision.” Post said that the huge turnout “demonstrates today that we do support the right thing and if you come to us with the right thing, we will support it.”
• Jean Dickerson suggested that the county put funding into the Exchange to have a pickup truck to pick up larger items, to run advertising to publicize the Exchange, to chip or compost wood stumps and to sell compost.
• Oberon  said, “If you take 800,000 seriously,” that money could be used to sort waste, creating employment and inventory for recycling.
• Amber Paulson, director of Kaleidoscope Child Care Center, noted that the Exchange saves money for small nonprofit such as Kaleidoscope.
• Didier Ginciq boiled down his understanding of the County’s approach to “Create more waste so we can have more money — muy ironico [very ironic].I encourage all to stay involved, grow more food, compost — every day my goal to make little less waste.”

Concluding the public hearing portion of the meeting, Fralick said that the Council would be addressing the solid waste disposal problem at a special workshop the next day, and he encouraged the Orcas audience to, “take advantage of talking to us individually,” outside of public meetings.