Two Proposals for a Solid Waste Solution for Orcas

Decision planned for July 30

By Margie Doyle

Updated July 20 at 12 p.m.

The Solid Waste Solution has evaded San Juan County, and specifically, Orcas Island, for some years, even as the 3 Rs goals (reduce, re-use, recycle) have taken hold among islanders.

In recent years, as waste volumes were reduced, tipping (dumping) fees and the costs of operation increased. The County Solid Waste program also incurred increased expenditure in trying to meet health and environmental regulations compliance. And then there’s the matter of the dealings between the town of Friday Harbor and the county on a site for San Juan Islanders to dump their solid waste.

Matters came to a head last November, when county voters turned down a solid waste tax and the county is now in the process of withdrawing from the solid waste business, even as it keeps the past debt from its years of operation of three sites, on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands.

Now groups on each island are crafting solutions for their three situations: on Lopez, voters will decide on whether to form a taxing district to deal with solid waste disposal; on San Juan, proposals will be considered for solid waste operations at the site on Sutton Road.

And on Orcas, two organizations came forward this week with proposals to operate the four-lot transfer station on Orcas Road. The proposals of Cimarron Enterprises (Cimarron Trucking) and Orcas Recycling Services (ORS or “The Exchange”) were heard by a Orcas Solid Waste Vendor Selection committee, composed of County Council Solid Waste Subcommittee Chair Patty Miller, Russ Harvey, Jeff Struthers, Steve Alexander and Lisa Byers, Chair.

The business vs. non-profit nature of the two organizations was apparent in their proposals. Cimarron is a private garbage trucking business, founded in Anacortes, Wash. in 1984, while ORS is a public non-profit organization, operating on Orcas Island since 1983. Orcas Recycling Services, Inc. is the official name of the Exchange Community Initiative and Re-use Facility. The Exchange has been self-funded since its beginning in January, 1983, and has donated funds to other island non-profits.

Currently, since July 2011, self-haul rates are $355/ton and franchise-haul rates are  $265/ton. These and other rates are referred to as “tipping fees,” and can be found at the county site at https://sanjuanco.com/publicworks/solid_waste/solid_waste_docs/SW_Fees.pdf

Cimarron’s proposal was made to the committee on July 17.

Cimarron, in a contract with Waste Management, currently trucks Orcas solid waste and recyclables to the mainland. Numbers vary, but Cimarron Owner Blair Estenson says “Each week, typically, three trailer loads of recyclables are taken to the Waste Management’s [Cascade Recycling] Center in Woodinville; and four to five trailers of solid waste are taken to Seattle where they are loaded onto trains for the Waste Management site in eastern Oregon. “

The Cimarron proposal includes a rate agreement with San Juan Sanitation for $154/ton tipping fees for garbage collected on Orcas Island routes. The cost to self-haulers,  is estimated to be reduced to $280/ton. (The proposed rate does not include county excise tax, currently 10%, nor the state refuse tax of 3.6%. In addition, Cimarron has offered a 3% rebate on gross profits to the County).

According to Cimarron’s proposal, “Our proposal reduces tipping fees and expands services, but requires significant capital and management outlays.

“Proposed capital outlays include relocation of the existing scale, installation of a second scale, rerouting of traffic, safety enhancements, installation of a multi-station conveyor driven sorting line, and of a materials baler.”

Cimarron offers “environmentally friendly and efficient” goals of “potentially processing recyclable materials on-site and an efficient transport system to an award winning landfill, and potentially a waste gasification facility,” which will “provide in-county employment.”

Cimarron’s plans for recycling, according to Estenson, are to “work alongside the Exchange, and to evaluate the recyclables [that come into the transfer station] to see if there’s a way to sort and keep” materials on the island.

Estenson said that Cimarron’s also views bringing “rates to the public that are lower than they are now” as an important measurement of success.

Cimarron’s proposal included considerations for traffic and stormwater drainage at the Orcas transfer site, and relocation of structures and operations. Yard waste and organic waste will be transferred to Skagit Soils in Skagit County.

“Cimarron’s proposed rates assume that the z-wall recycling area and at least a portion of Parcel C [of the current property] will not be available for the long term transfer station operations. However, if the construction of a new z-wall recycling area is not required and a portion of the storage area is made available,” rates will be further reduced.

Orcas Recycling Services/The Exchange

Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) presentation, made to the Vendor Selection Committee on July 18, states its management of the transfer site will:

1)      continue its present operation;
2)      expand waste reduction capacity;
3)      assume responsibility for the operation of the recycling and solid waste handling functions and infrastructure at the Orcas Island Transfer Station.

“ORS also proposes to assume responsibility for all required capital improvements, permits and liabilities. The financial outlay for these expenses will be derived from one or more of the following sources: tip fees, State and County capital improvement grants, and community fundraising.

“ORS anticipates partnering with Orcas Island Freight Lines, San Juan Sanitation and others, as well as to retain the current on-site County employees for their essential expertise in on-site operations.”

“Of critical importance to the mission and success of Orcas Recycling Services, through the continued operation of The Exchange, is a commitment to waste-reduction; this is complementary and, in fact, pivotal to the goals of the SWMP formulated by the County and the State’s Beyond Waste Plan.

In the presentation to the Vendor Selection Committee (Lisa Byers, Jeffrey Struthers, Russ Harvey, Steve Alexander and Patty Miller), Executive Director of ORS and the Manager of the Exchange Mark DeTray emphasized “the cost reductions that could be achieved through various recycling, composting and re-use methods reclaiming more construction waste materials; capturing cardboard and glass for on-island uses; repairing appliances, etc. for reuse (“upcycling”); and offering chipping and composting services, as well as any other opportunities in this arena that may arise.”

The ORS proposal says, “Off-island transport accounts for an estimated 40% of all expenses. With this in mind, source-separation of recyclables, particularly glass, will allow us to significantly reduce the amount of material weight shipped off-island and, thereby, the associated expense.” Figures from Lopez Island indicate that glass may account or as much as 40 percent of the cumulative weight of all recyclables.

“This same calculus applies to any reusable material that can be culled from the waste stream and reused / recycled on-island (food wastes, cardboard, etc.). Take food waste, for instance; at roughly 12% of garbage by weight for the US as a whole, we may generate as much as 600 tons per year here on Orcas Island… cardboard may go to mulch and compost.

“All materials that can be diverted back into value-added products on the island will be retained and processed / distributed for those purposes. The remaining materials will be sold to enterprises on the mainland, such as Skagit River Steel and Recycling.”

ORS/Exchange prepared two budgets to present to the Vendor Selection Committee: the first budgets services by San Juan Sanitation or another franchise hauler at $200/ton and to the self-hauling public at $290/ton, using current co-mingled recycling services. (The ORS proposal includes the  county excise tax  — projected at 11% — and state refuse tax of 3.6% ).

In its second budget, going forward, with recycled materials “source separated,” Orcas Recyling Services projects a 15% rate decrease to $260 for self-haulers and $180 to franchise haulers.

ORS President Pete Moe, who has served on the County’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee for four years, said that the benefits of the ORS proposal are that local jobs can be created and lower rates “for everyone” can be established. Noting that the landfill grossed about $2 million last year, Moe said there would still be profits that could go back into composting and construction clean-up.

“In addition the transfer station could be ‘parked out’ as an environmental laboratory as well as a disposal/recycling facility.

“The greatest thing we can offer is that profit is not our motive,” said Moe. “We can provide a discount for all haulers, and offer a good plan to reduce garbage sent off-island and increase the amount we reduce, re-use and recycle.”

Other members of the ORS/Exchange non-profit board are Errol Speed, Ian Harlow, Jared Lovejoy, Jeffrey Ludwig, Michael Greenberg and Susan Malins.

Selection process

Any vendor selected is required to pay a $7,000 lease as an annual administration fee of the Orcas property to the county. An excise tax rate of 10% of the gross revenue is also paid to the county. Cimarron’s proposal includes payment of three percent of the tip fee revenue from self- and franchise-haulers in addition to the county excise tax on solid waste.

The Vendor Selection Committee is empowered by state law to recommend to the County Council, which can negotiate with both vendors, with one or the other, or none, rejecting both proposals; the council can also request more information from one or both parties.

Meanwhile, the Vendor Selection Committee meeting for the Orcas Island Solid Waste Site scheduled for Friday, July 20, 2012 at the Orcas Landing Conference Room has been cancelled, San Juan County Public Works announced this afternoon.

The Exchange will host two forums on the Orcas transfer station issues:
Monday, July 23, and Friday the 27th, both 5:30 – 7:30 at the Eastsound Firehall.