Department of Public WorksTransfer Station RatesIssue Brief
Issue:
The traffic at the transfer stations, especially at the Salem-Keizer Recycling & Transfer Station, has been increasing rapidly over the past several years. This has affected the ability of Allied Waste to keep up, as well as the County’s ability to move customers through the scales in a timely matter.
Concern has been expressed that due to the fact that the rates at the transfer stations have not increased since 1992, including the minimum transaction charge, that an increasing number of customers are coming from locations outside of Marion County, as well as an increase in the number of citizens that are using the transfer station in lieu of having regular curbside garbage service, due to it being cheaper. Allied Waste, as well as the haulers in general, has requested that the County look at the possibility of increasing the minimum charge at the transfer stations.
Findings and Recommended Action:
Minimum Charge for Solid WasteThe rates at Marion County’s solid waste facilities last changed on January 1, 1992. This includes the setting of the $9 minimum charge for waste at the transfer stations. At that time, curbside collection costs were significantly less, especially since that predates the addition of two major programs that increased the cost of service, yard debris collection and mixed recycling. Thus, an increasing amount of citizens choose to haul their own waste on an occasional basis, saving them money. This has led to vehicle counts at the transfer stations (SKRTS in particular) on certain days that are difficult to get processed on a timely basis. Over the past several years, customer counts at SKRTS have risen by approximately 10,000 vehicles each year. This creates slowdowns that are experienced both at the tipping areas, with customers having to wait to get an open spot at the tipping wall, as well as at the scalehouse, due to the large number of payment transactions needed. Coming with this increased vehicle traffic in the tipping area is the increased concern about public safety. During the past year, there have been two major incidents at SKRTS, one of them resulting in a fatality.
Additionally, the costs at other out-of-county disposal sites have risen substantially over the years. Whereas many citizens used to choose to self-haul their waste to an out of area landfill such as Coffin Butte because it was dramatically cheaper ($24 per ton vs. $87.45 per ton), this has changed over time (see table below). Coffin Butte now is at $44 per ton, with a ½ ton minimum ($22), plus a $5 “Environmental Fee” that is collected to help fund environmental actions at the landfill. Thus, this disparity in minimum rates is attracting customers from outside Marion County, particularly from Polk and Linn County, who have smaller loads, as it represents a cost savings to bring their material to SKRTS.
Disposal Facility
Material
Minimum Charge
Coffin Butte Landfill
SW
$22 + $5 environmental fee
Riverbend Landfill
$13
Lebanon Transfer Station
$18/CY + $5 environmental fee
Metro Transfer Station
SW Tarped
$17 ($71.14/ton + $8.50 transaction fee)
SW Untarped
$20 ($96.14/ton + $8.50 transaction fee)
Staff has been collecting zip code data from our customers since the beginning of December 2007 in order to determine the source of waste being delivered to the county’s three publicly available disposal sites (SKRTS, NM, and Brown’s Island). This data has proven to be very informative. Over the past 4 ½ months, approximately 12% of the tons of municipal solid waste delivered to SKRTS were from out-of-county sources, with that number being approximately 32% for the North Marion facility. This supports the notion that our lower minimum charge at our transfer stations is creating an incentive for those outside of our county to bring their waste to our facilities.
Increasing the minimum charge would likely have the effect of reducing the number of minimum charge customers that visit the transfer stations, which averages about 27% of all customers bringing waste to the two facilities. With approximately 150,000 waste transactions being recorded at the transfer stations in 2006, this means that about 40,000 of those were customers with the minimum load size. Raising the minimum charge would therefore not directly affect about 75% of the customers that visit the facilities, and would generate approximately $40,000 per year in additional revenue for each additional $1 added to the minimum charge. That may be overstating somewhat, as there may be some drop-off in customer counts if implemented. Therefore, if the County were to raise the minimum charge from $9 to $15 (which is below the average of the other neighboring disposal sites), the County would potentially generate approximately $240,000 per year in additional revenue. However, it is expected that the number of customers, particularly from out-of-county, would decline as well, thus reducing the amount of revenue generated to a minimal amount.
Other MaterialsBoth yard debris and clean wood waste are also accepted at the transfer stations for recycling, for a fee. The basic tip fee for those items is approximately half of the fee assessed for garbage, and goes to cover the costs for composting and recycling. These items are also currently subject to the minimum $9 charge per transaction. In order to not discourage the public from bringing in their wood and yard debris for recycling, it is proposed that the current minimum charge of $9 for these materials remain the same, with no increase.
In conclusion, it is recommended that the County raise the minimum charge for solid waste at the two transfer stations from $9, to the proposed level of $15. It is recommended that this occur in two phases, with a raise from $9 to $13 occurring on October 1, 2008, and another raise from $13 to $15 occurring on April 1, 2009.