Solid Waste Agency not ready to drop fees for Sinclair debris

The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency Board on Thursday did not rush to endorse a Cedar Rapids City Council request to have the board cut its landfill fees in half for asbestos-containing material.

Board members Jim Houser, a Linn County supervisor, and Charlie Kress, a Marion resident, both questioned why the agency would drop its current $120-a-ton fee for asbestos-containing material to $60 a ton when the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved that rate for disaster-related debris.

What happens, Houser asked, if the board drops the rate of the fee and then some years later, the Sinclair debris becomes a problem at the agency's Site 1 landfill, known as Mount Trashmore. The agency may then find it had not taken in a sufficiently large tipping fee to pay to remedy the problem, he said.

Board member Mark English, assistant Cedar Rapids fire chief, said his concern was “getting sideways” with FEMA, which already has paid $120-a-ton in tipping fees as part of the demolition of some Cedar Rapids homes. Will FEMA want to recalculate the earlier payments if the solid waste agency drops its fee now? English wondered.

Board member Pat Ball, the city's utilities director, said he believed the city could make a case to FEMA that the tipping fees related to the Sinclair debris should be lower because of the sheer volume of debris - which is expected to be at least 65,000 tons. Certain fixed costs would be spread over more volume, Ball said.

Board member Justin Shields, a Cedar Rapids council member, pushed for lowering the tipping fee to $60 a ton.

City Council member Chuck Swore, who heads up the council's Procurement Committee but is not on the solid waste agency's board, made the council's case to the board to lower the tipping fee.

A council resolution passed on Wednesday evening, which tossed out a first round of bids on the Sinclair job, stated the bidders in a new round of bids would be required to bring the Sinclair debris to Site 1. The resolution forecast that the tipping fee would be $60 a ton.

The solid waste agency board will meet again Monday. Members Brent Oleson, Pat Shey and Tom Podzimek did not attend the Thursday session.

Karmin McShane, the solid waste agency's executive director, explained to the agency's board that the $120-a-ton fee for asbestos-containing material was adopted by the board after the June 2008 flood. McShane said it is the rate she found at other public landfills in Iowa.

McShane also reported that she had talked to a FEMA representative, and the representative said fees can be dropped without jeopardizing previous disaster payments made at a higher fee.