Agenda - 01-26-2012 - 4 - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 The Towns maintain (justifiably) that Solid Waste Enterprise Funds `must' by law be used in connection to mitigation issues having linkage to the landfill location. The County and Towns adopted a well repair/replacement program funded with solid waste enterprise revenues. There is consensus that public water service extension does extend to a landfill related enviror�mental concern. It is difficuft to find an environmental [ink between the landfill and failing individual septic tanks in the Ragers/Eubanks Road area. No scientific study has been pursued on this issue due to the unlikeliness of linking the landfill's location to septic tank failures. The County is restricted in how it may use landf�ll revenues (Enter�rise Funds). The Towns use their indididual General -Funds to expense out residential solid waste collect�ori progra�ms. The Towns do not charge separately for household solict waste aallection. It is a service the Towns provide via-the municipal tax rate and other local revenues. The landfill t�p.pingfees paid to the Count� by the Towns are Town General Fund expenditures. Thus, the Towns have greater funding latitude accordingly. The longer the current County operated landfitl stays open, the longer the Towns can defer the addedexpense of transporting their collected MSW to another location (Durham or elsewh�re). Estimates of that savings do not appear in any calculation of the County's closure/post closure costs. More recent estimates put the annual savings to Chapel HiCI at -about $350,000-$400,000 and at $100,000-$150,OOQ annually for Carrboro. (Changes to equipment and-other efficiency efforts varould impact these estimates_) FINANCIAL [MPACT: The County is restricted in its use of the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund revenues or reserves. Per previously noted estimates, closure/post closure expense is estimated at $7,941,275 (update analysis is being pursued). The Water Service extension propasal outlined earlier is estimated to cost $4,077,587. The Dump Sites clean-up proposal has an estimated cost of $50,000 without verification of the number of sites within a 3/ mile range of the landfill. MSW Lan�fill Enterprise Reserve Funding is $7,403,190 as of June 30, 2011. The current landfill agreement befinreen the County and Towns limits the County's ability to raise tipping fees to a 10% annual adjustment with a 6U days written notice. Currently, the base Iandfill tipping fee is$57 per ton. The County will need to increase tipping fees according to the direction taken in addressing the items outlined above. The lifecycle of the landfill (remaining months of operation) wili dictate anticipated revenues, assuming the volume of waste remains consistent as tipping fees rise. RECOMMENDATION(S}: The Manager recommends that the Board: 1. Direct staff to initiate the Water Service improvements as outlined. Further refinement of those estimates, engineering and construction would be scheduled accordingly and Solid Waste Enterprise Funds be the source of funding for these projects. The Board of Commissioners w�uld approve each project and OWASA would be the contract administrator. 2. Authorize the Dump Sites clean-up program as proposed. Solid Waste Enterprise Funds would be the source of funding for this effort. Solid Waste Staff