Agenda - 02-21-2012 - 8d - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 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 enviro�mental concern. 6 It is difficult to ftnd an environmental [ink between the landfill and failing indivislual 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 sepfic tank failures. The County is restricted in how it may use landfll revenues (Enter�rise Funds). The Towns use their indididual General -Funds to expense out residential solid waste collect�oa� programs. The Towns do not charge separately for household solicf waste a�llection. It is a service the Towns pravide via the municipal tax rate and other local revenues. The landfill t:pping-fees 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 landfill 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 Hifl at -about $350,000-$400,000 and at $100,000-$150,Oa0 annually for Carrb�ro. (Changes to equi.pment and�other efficiency efforts varould impact these estimate�) 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 propo�al 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. M�W Lanc�fill Enterprise Reserve Funding is $7,403,190 as of June 30, 2011. The current landfilt agreement between the County and Towns limits the County's ability to raise tipping fees to a 10% annual adjustment with a 60 days written notice. Current(y, the base landfill tipping fee is $57 per ton. The County will need to increase tipping fees according to the direction taken in addressing the ite�ms outlined above. The lifecycle of the Iandfill (remaining months of operation) will dictate anticipated revenues, assuming the volume of waste remains consistent as tipping fees rise. RECOMMENDATION(S): TF�e 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 schedufed accordingly and Solid Waste Enterprise Funds be the source of funding for these projects. The Board of Commissioners would 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