Landfill tipping fees go up $2 per ton

BAYBORO — Tipping fees at the Coastal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority’s Tuscarora Landfill will go up $2 a ton in July.

Two officials from municipalities served by the landfill, which serves three counties, spoke at the authority’s Thursday public hearing — one opposing, one supporting — an increase that brings the rate to $36 a ton plus a $2 state pass-on fee.

“It is frustrating to learn that this region’s efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle, coupled with the worldwide economic declines of the past few years, have created an environment where the only two viable options on the table are to either increase user fees or essentially hope for an increase in the solid waste stream,” said Randall Cahoon, Oriental town manager.

He said Oriental, which has 704 landfill customers, is in the middle of budget planning and “I have trimmed our operations budget to the bone … until a more bountiful year. I am requesting that you reconsider this proposed rate increase.”

Dave Harvell, Havelock assistant manager, said, “We have 5,000 of your customers and I want to thank the organization for maintaining a rate schedule in the 1990s range for tipping. You run a stellar organization.”

Authority Chairman Bill Ritchie said, “Until last year we hadn’t gone up on the price for 10 years and costs have all gone up.”

The new cost is still $1.50 a ton less than in 2002 and $15 a ton less than the $51-a-ton peak fee the authority has charged.

Director Allen Hardison gave a rate comparison of comparable tipping fees in other locations.

County landfill per-ton tipping fees in New Hanover are $55.60, Onslow $47, Wake $30, Watauga $49, Brunswick $42, and Johnston $35. The numbers may or may not include the $2 state pass through fee to help counties find recycling alternatives that is not available for the Craven, Pamlico, Carteret authority because it is a regional, rather than county, operation.

Hardison said the cost of bulk tipped at private landfills is a negotiated, rather than hard, number, and some northeastern North Carolina counties use a Chesapeake, Va., landfill costing $170 a ton.

The authority plans to begin building the fourth 20-acre cell in its 35-year plan at Tuscarora by the end of 2010 or early 2011. The cell completed in 2006 can hold about 2.6 billion pounds — about 40 percent more per cubic yard than those in 1998 — and cost $8.6 million.

The authority operation processes and sells compost and sells the gas produced by the decaying waste to an on-site energy producer that sends power into the local Progress Energy grid.

Authority Vice Chairman Clark Wylde of Newport said the regional authority has “tightened our belt to the tune of $1 million. We have to go up. We have no choice. Allen (Hardison) should be commended for maintaining a reasonable rate for our stakeholders.”

Authority directors voted unanimously for the increase and the $8.9 million budget for fiscal 2010-2011. 

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sbook@freedomenc.com.