Waste Disposal Meet on Orcas: Consensus to Recycle Aggressively

Funding proposal a “surprise” to meeting moderator

The Public Planning Workshop for Orcas Island last Wednesday, Sept. 29, followed closely on the County Council’s decision of Tuesday, Sept. 28 to  direct County Administrator Pete Rose to prepare a balanced 2011 solid waste budget which will keep open all three transfer stations on Lopez, San Juan, and Orcas Islands.

Council Member Bob Myhr of Lopez Island said, “This action was a successful reversal of the position taken by the administrator two weeks ago when Rose and Public Works Director Jon Shannon told the County Council that they planned to present a 2011 balanced budget for solid waste by closing the Lopez and San Juan transfer stations.

“The Council will review the budget details based on current financial data in mid-October. The Council directive would be in keeping with what we are hearing from our citizens regarding our transfer stations being essential public facilities for our islands,” said Myhr.

The survey report indicated Orcas responses compared to the total county responses, and may be found at www.sanjuanco.com/SWMP/MeetingNotes. Similar workshops assessing the survey results were held on San Juan and Lopez Island in the past two weeks.

At the Orcas meeting, Elizabeth Anderson and Steve Alexander moderated some 40-plus island residents as they discussed county waste disposal policy, history and priorities.

After discussion of the results from the recent county-wide opinion survey, addressing allocation of resources, structure, paying for solid waste and budget solutions, the Orcas group informally agreed that the burden of paying for the costs of both waste disposal and recycling should be borne by island residents.

George Post said that, although the county has maintained for 14 years that the major goals of the existing solid waste plan are to reduce, reuse, and recycle. there was no design for resolving the solid waste disposal crisis “because we’re not trying to get to waste reduction.”

Leith Templin said that reducing only the waste that must be shipped off-island doesn’t speak to the costs (or opportunities) to process waste materials, such as compost, on-island.

Patty Miller said, “the degree to which we address the goals in the summary depends on funding. I hope we can spend some time imagining policy decisions and payment.”

Miller, who is running unopposed for the Orcas West County Council seat vacated by Gene Knapp, said she was concerned that the Council seemed “intent on maintaining the current model.  Recycling costs $325,000 a year. If we value it, are we willing to pay for it, or are we adamant it stay free? If so, we have to look elsewhere for funding.”

Anderson summarized the concerns presented at the Orcas meeting as:

• Facilities
• Hauling to Orcas
• Planning vs. acting now
• Policy
• Services
• Payment

She suggested the group break into four smaller groups to refine what was meant in the survey,

Post’s questions at his smaller group brought out a description of the waste problem as three fold; and suggested funding solutions for each aspect of the waste “stream.”

• The cost of garbage hauling requires maintenance of a transfer station where non-reusable waste can be transferred; funded by property taxes on all Orcas Island properties, developed or not;
• Recycle recyclable materials through re-purposing and processing; funded by a “membership” or annual fee, as has been discussed by the County Council;
• Reduction of waste through one-time “usage” fee for individual disposal.

The county has only addressed the first aspect through the transfer station, Post said, “When we talk about finding, we have to pay for the infrastructure. We get that, but do we ignore the other aspects of waste disposal?

Margot Shaw suggested that payment for waste disposal and recycling part of waste disposal should be considered “Payment for the privilege of using the facility.”

The sometimes fractious discussion obtained some consensus when George Post called for a straw vote “What is the goal of Solid Waste in San Juan county? asked Post. “If the problem is the cost of hauling, transferring  garbage, then the solution is waste reduction.”

By a show of hands later in the meeting, most of the attendees agreed with Post.

Other table discussion groups at the Orcas meeting suggested:

• reduction of waste leaving the island;
• education and outreach;
• improvement of and more frequent hazardous waste collection;
• upgrade of the facility and improvement in operations;
• review of waste disposal on annual basis to revaulate recyclable commodities;
• self-haul drop off
• creation of three taxing districts so that each island can decide how to handle their own situation
• sale of recycling equipment at cost for individual homeowner’s use
• “hamlet” composting, relying on volunteers

The meeting as a whole then discussed the three-tier approach to waste disposal and funding, placing the responsibility for payment for the most part on property owners, recyclers and transfer station users.

Post said, “We’re trying to embolden the council to ask us to pay for what we want.”

Elizabeth Anderson said that she was surprised that the group was advocating individual and property-owner payment as a solution to the waste disposal funding crisis.

Steve Alexander cautioned the group that all  the county “allocation of staff resources is right here in this room,” indicating himself, Elizabeth Anderson and Helen Venada, who works part time.

Alexander said there was some uncertainty as to whether the Council “is behind us in the planning process.

“For the last eleven months, they’ve been debating whether to have one site or three, developing policy questions as to what services can be provided, who will pay for them, and how they will pay for them.

“We are the conduit, but it is not the employees’ position to make the boss give answers.”