Landfill likely to lower fees for Sinclair demolition debris

Federal taxpayers - which Cedar Rapids City Council member Chuck Swore says means you - are likely to save a couple million dollars on fees charged to dump the demolition debris from the former Sinclair meatpacking plant into the Site 1 landfill, affectionately called Mount Trashmore.

However, the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency Board on Monday put off until Feb. 16 any decision on the fee it will charge for the Sinclair debris so it can post the announcement of a public hearing on the matter as required by the board's bylaws.

The Sinclair issue is in front of the agency's board at the request of the Cedar Rapids City Council, which wants the board to lower the fee that the agency charges to handle asbestos-containing material. The Sinclair buildings contain asbestos material, and all of the debris from the old plant must be handled as if it contains asbestos.

The Solid Waste Agency Board has nine members, but three of the nine are Cedar Rapids City Council members and three are top city of Cedar Rapids department managers.

Most of the Cedar Rapids contingent on the board on Monday spoke favorably about devising a rate structure that takes into account the volume of debris a customer brings to the landfill.

The three other board members, Linn County supervisors Brent Oleson and Jim Houser and Marion resident Charlie Kress, expressed skepticism about changing the fee, and they have been quick to note that a problem with the city's bidding process related to the Sinclair demolition contract is the only reason the landfill fee is being discussed in the first place.

Council member Tom Podzimek, who chaired the solid waste agency board the last two years and remains a member, said it might make sense to charge the current rate of $120 a ton for asbestos-containing material to handle small loads of the material. But the city plans on bringing at least 65,000 tons of the material from the Sinclair site, he noted.

Podzimek brought candy bars to the Monday meeting to make his point: He noted that he had purchased one candy bar at a convenience store for $1.49 and another by buying in volume at a big-box retailer for 48 cents per bar.

With the amount of debris coming from the Sinclair site, doesn't it make sense for the agency board to reduce the price per ton? Podzimek asked.

“I think it's a fair request,” he said.

Council member Swore, who is not on the agency board, said the Cedar Rapids council had no reason to suggest a $60-a-ton fee the Sinclair debris other than the fact that $60 a ton was half of the $120 a ton fee now in place.

At the same time, board member Pat Shey, a Cedar Rapids City Council member, noted that the agency board established the $120 fee because that is what the Black Hawk County landfill charges. Shey wondered if the Black Hawk County number or ones used by other public landfills in Iowa really had any relation to the actual cost of handling a high volume of the material.

Oleson, the solid waste agency board's chairman, cited a handful of other Iowa public landfills that charge at least $120 a ton to handle asbestos-containing material.

A check of the Black Hawk County landfill on Monday afternoon found published rates there to be $120 a ton for out-of-county clients, but $60 a ton for those in Black Hawk County.

Karmin McShane, the solid-waster agency's executive director, estimated that it might cost the agency $55-or-so a ton to handle asbestos-containing material.

Podzimek then suggested that a fee of $75 a ton might be enough to allow a sufficient sum to go into the agency's reserve to help pay for closing the landfill and to monitor it for years to come.

Jim Houser, a Linn County supervisor, argued that there are more contaminants than asbestos on the Sinclair site, and he said to lower the fee on Sinclair debris would be putting local taxpayers at risk if environmental problems from the debris later became an issue.

Swore, though, told Houser that the Sinclair material going to the landfill now is construction debris and does not contain any of the possible contaminants in the soil at the plant site.

Council member Justin Shields, a board member, blamed an attorney representing an unhappy demolition contractor for suggesting that there was contamination other than asbestos on the Sinclair site. Shields said there wasn't any.

The local solid waste agency's fee of $120 a ton became a debate topic after the city considered bids for the Sinclair demolition from 11 demolition contractors. Two of the 11 did not follow the city's bid requirement that they take the demolition debris to the local Site 1 landfill. As a result, the two firms had much lower bids based on plans to haul the debris to less-expensive, private landfills outside of Iowa.

The agency board's Oleson on Monday noted that the bylaws of the agency -- the members of which are the governmental jurisdictions in the county --  require the Sinclair material to go the local landfill unless, as Podzimek said, the board specifically makes some kind of exception or for some reason can't accept it.

After the meeting, Oleson noted that one worry if the local fee changes is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might ask for money back from payments it made earlier based on the solid waste agency's $120-a-ton fee.