Marion agrees to waste-to-energy deal

MARION - Marion is closer than ever to converting its trash to energy instead of sending it to a landfill.

The City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to accept a contract with Plasma Power LLC, contingent upon three proposed changes, to provide trash for the Florida firm's plasma-arc waste-to-energy plant. Despite his dissenting vote, Mayor Allen “Snooks” Bouska said he supports the project.

“We're ahead of the ball game,” Bouska said after the vote, which followed a 90-minute closed-door session.

“I'm pleased we're moving forward in technology and won't be sending our waste to a landfill on our north side,” member Paul Draper said. “It's a terrific thing for Linn County and the state.”

The contract's approval is conditioned on Plasma Power management agreeing to three conditions:

• Lowering Marion's basic 150-tons-a-day trash supply requirement by a corresponding amount if Cedar Rapids or the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency later agree to provide waste to the project.

• Limiting the city's pass-through costs to no more than $150,000 a year.

• Guaranteeing that Marion receives incentives worth 10 percent more than any the company may grant future trash providers.

Although the contract sets a Jan. 1, 2015, operational deadline, City Manager Lon Pluckhahn said Plasma Power wants to have the plant running by the end of this year to get federal tax credits.

The contract doesn't stipulate a location for the plant, which will be the first of its kind in North America. It's expected the steam generated by the facility will be supplied to customers near downtown Cedar Rapids who lost their steam supply when Alliant Energy closed its Sixth Street Generating Plant after the Floods of 2008.

Bouska said the contract's failure to guarantee a Marion location was a factor in his vote.

The city's baseline tonnage requirement has been reduced from 250 tons in a previous version of the contract, and the city's penalty for failure to provide the minimum amounts has been changed from a $1.5 million yearly payment to the $38-per-ton tipping fee charged by the waste agency.