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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0287.001 2006-2008 I:l i. [i~i'~. H:' 1 N1 kROM: Faa Wr,~DWAP.D F.1 ~N Ad~i'LATF.U ~ ~ e'il: .P/:F.; n0] ~~F '.i~ WOODWARD-RICE ASSOCIATES FOR YOUR INFORMATION to: County Council Fax number: 961-8912 From: Claudia Woodward-Rice Fax number: 963-6889 Home phone: 9636123 - Business phone: Date & Time: 04/17/07 8:04:52 AM Pages sent: 6 - Re: Env. Mgmt. Committee meeting 4/17 Please make copies for all members and distribute prior to today's meeting. Many thanks. 1 I~"'~~~~' N: I nfq i~R. ~M: F1:. „~~~pWFhl P.: '4 "FiFS' yob, <F: •,F rn„ WILLIAM 8r CLAUDIA RICE P O Box 186, Honomu, HI 96728 (808) 963-6123 phone/ 963-6889 fax email ncesothi(c~hilobav.com April 16, 2007 please copy and distril~u'e to all members County Council r Environmental Management Committee 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, HI 96720 r-~ Re: Update to Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan 'Waste to Energy' vs Landfill option - Dear Committee: We are writing to express our support for Councilman Dominic Yagong's new resolution to update and amend the COH Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, as required by HRS 342G24(a), For years it has seemed that the process has been constrained to eliminate any possi~iliry other than incineration for disposal of solid waste. Serious questions remain about: the scale of the waste stream needed to make an incinerator viable • the true costs and scope of maintenance • pollution from uRrafine particles, mercury, or other emissions liability issues • the history of massive debts incurred by other commundies who have adopteo this technology One of those competing under our current RFP is Barlow Projects Inc. I would encourage you to read the attached article about the experiences of Harrisburg, PA with Barlow and incineration. We support the creation of a new landfill. It is a known technology with well established costs. A good site is available next to the current landfill and, with increased recycling and composting, can serve Hawaii County well for many years to come. Sincerely, William Rice l~ Claudia Woodward-Rice ~:"1 AM FV ~M. Few Id-npWaFi 4. A"'.'. .~FiF.:: i0: ~nl ~'~I: ':L: n0_ ip' ~ _2_ httpa ~www.prtieaution. or Q'lib/06/pm selling city ha11.061130.htm Rachel's Democrac~~ & Health News x884. December 7, 2006 MONEY TO BURN (Rachel's introductimt: 1'he mayor of Harrisburg. Pennsylvania is considering selling ah~ buildings including City Elall to raise cash to pay for a failed garbage incinerator.] By Peter klontague To alleviate massive debt created by the city's garbage incinerator, the mayor of Harris~w g. Penns}h•ania has proposed selling off the city's Pubic Safety Building, headquarters fir tl ie cit}%s police and lire departments. Harrisburg is the state capital of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg's mayor of 20 years. Stephen R. Reed, had initially considered selling off~Citv_fIall itself, but settled tirr scllingthe police-and-fire building instead. The city is flirting with bankruptcy as the incinerator's debt burden grows. The mayor says stilling the Public Safeq~ Building, then leasing it back tiom its new cr~?7er. will raise 510.5 million in short-term cash. The cost of this bit of creative financing would be rorne by firtura taxpayers. Background In Jung, 2003. Harrisburg's 31-}'oar-old garbage incinerator shut down bemuse it could not meet air quality standards. But the city still owed $104 million on the machine, which would h:.ve to be repaid at the rate of $7 million per year through the year 2030. Mayor Reed came up with the idea of borrowing another $12S million to Yinance a facelitt for the defunct machine. The refurbished incinerator would he designed to burn 800 tons of garbage per day. about 8 limas as much as Harrisburg itself produces. 'fhe machine would imp at ;arbage and sell steam and electricity to tom a profit rat least that was the plan. To feed the machine and reassure investors that they would gat their $125 million back w th interest. Harrisburg signed contracts with dozens ofmm~icipalities in Dauphin, Cumbeala ud and Perry Counties giving Harrisburg the exclusive right to burn their garbage. Such an arr:mp;ement is called "flow control," and "flow control" was declared illegal be the L'. S. Supreme Courtin 19'l4. but Harrisburg officials insist their plan is fagot and can surnivti any future lawsuits by independent waste haulers seeking to compete with the Harrisburg incinerator. ~1s soon as the city's incinerator plan was amiounced, citizen opposition flared. Bout cit}' o ficials fought back with a campaign of fi'ighlening predictions. They foresaw major problems for taxpayers if the $125 million loan wererejected_ Dan Lispi, the Elarrishurg official in cha~ge of the incinerator, said annual propert}° takes on a 5100A00 home would rise $500, waste di,.posal fees would skymeket. the city would become dependent oft dwindling and uncertain landfill space, and there mould bti "mass layoffs" of city ~oorkers. On the other hand, city officials offered a rosy pich~re of the refirrbished incinerator's financial future, estimating that the plant could eam as much as $23.6 million in its first fidl yearn ' a"I ..i ~:~-~1 RM F0.nM: 4'3i_ W~npWt 0.1 i:'4: .aFb'. ATfi:'. ~[~I-N'~l. ':1~Sk.: no.i '.~M' ~ l~. operation in 2006 enough to pay its $99 million iu annual operating costs, handle the d_bt payments and begin building a cash surplus But residents who turned out for public hearings in :august, 2003. said they'd heard sir filar rose projections before, when the original incinerator was proposed. 'They pointed out that the anginal machine had never worked reliably and that the city had repeatedly borrowed more mono ~ to try ro improve perlbnnunce. "I"ou'll Haver convince me." that refurbishing the old incinerator makes sense, said resident Evelyn Wartield. She outlined the financial history of the original inc nerator and presented a petition opposing the new project. Greeu Party member Frank Divonzo pointed out that debt on the old incinerator, whrch ~W3s $4l million in 1993, had more than doubled to $104 million by 2003 as officials struggled to Leep the original machine working. But Harrisburg officials were adamant rebuilding the incinerator was the city's only hope, they said. So they pressed on and arranged to borrow $125 million for an $RO million facelift c fthe old machine. plus $45 million in incidentals. Local lawyers. engineering oonsultants, lira trial advisors. accountants, and bankers found the plan rewarding. Environmental Racism The incinerator is located in south Harrisburg where 700,0 of residents arc black. The International Ministers Conference of Harrisburg f led Mast-minute appeal, saying the project was a clew case of environmental racism. Both the Harrisburg Authority, which owns the incinerator, and dtc state Department of Environmental Protection, which approved the aroject, jumped on the ministers with both feat, saying their appeal was both too late and without nerit. The hearing board quickly sided with city and state authorities, ruling that the ministers h.rd filed their appeal too late, and denying any evidence of racism. The original incinerator was built when the neighborhood was predominazt[ly white, they said. and blacks moved in later as whites moved out. The hearing board refused to acknowledge the obvious that such a familiar oxitem of land use is prima facie evidence of while privilege, a familiar form of racism. 1 ~ The a ayor said he larow the ministers world keep an ere on the incinerator to prevent health prob enrs from emerging, tacitly acknowledging what has been obvious for years •-that state and local officials are not up to the task of regulating such a machine. I larrisbur~ s refirrbishod incinerator was supposed to begin burning garbage January 2.2006, but steel shortages (in Pennsyh'ania!) and construMion delays plagued the project. The Harrisburg Authorih~ gave the firm doing the work Barlow Projects Inc. a four-month extension to complete the job, and it waived a penalty clause calling For Barlow to pay the city $22;)00 for each day the project was late. City Council members have since acknowledged that this ~+as "an incredibly bad decision." The rehrrbished machine never worked right from day one. John Luciew, a reporter tor'ha Harrisburg Patriot-Iv cws, wrote, "Even whin the incinerator's three burners were lighted. design flaws with the trash and fire) feeds at one end and the ash handling at the other have ha;n~fered operations to the point whcre,just one or two firrnaces are firing at any time." In additirn, the machine took more staft~lo run than first thouglri, resulting in double shifts and abundant overtime- a 1:~~. 4M Fnt.M: Fa: Irc'~~~PWAFI FI~'F: i.:: 1f ~~'_pmga fn: '~5: N,,' IAIF.: 04 ~~e i~ By late November, the incineraor had earned S12.6 million less than prujected for 2005, and the city of Harrisburg was facing a budget shortfall of 513.8 million. The city borrowed $7 ~n.Ilion to pay soma of its bills. The mayor initially estimated that the incinerator was responsible ter $5 million of the shortfall, and that tlxing the design haws i? the machine would reyuire an additional investment uf$5 to 510 million. By lleeernber 1 the mayor revealed that it v?add cost $14 million to tix the incinerator's desigr tlaws. including replacing its ash-handlings}sta ms. It was around this time that the mayor began thinking of selling city hall to a private part, then leasing it back. Of course, such ashort-term fie would onh~ make the long-term picture worse. Harrisbarl and its taxpayers not the Harrisburg Authority are now ou the hook for about $220 million ir; incinerator-related debt That equates to payments of about $16 million each year for the next 30 years. Essentially the refurbished incinerator will have to work perfectly avert' day for the next 30 years to meet its financial obligations. No incinerator in the world has ever achieved such a Flawless record of performance. In desperation. Iarrisburg is now considering turning over management oflhe incinerator to the company that mis-designed it in the tirst place, Barlow Projects ]ne. l'nder the new plan, Barlow would form a management subsidiary called Iarrisburg Resource Recovery Operation LLC" that would manage and statethe facility for about 510.5 million annually. The Harrisburg ,~_ut rarity would s1i11 own the plant, and the taxpayers of Harrisburg would still own the financial lii bi!i[y. The management contract would allow Barlow to secure tinancing l~r the $14 million v improvemc nts needed to fix the plant Barlow- not the mrthority. would pay for the upgrades. But the deal would destroy the jobs of the 4~ city employees who work at the plant. Incin:rator officials have said they will "talk td' union officials before privatizing =F5 unionized city jabs. Cynics point put that plan to privatize 45 city-jobs has several salutary eH~cts from the p; inl of view of both cdv officials and the corporate sector (a) 45 union jobs will disappear, thus diminishing the bargaining power of one of the v~15 strong unions remaining in the C.S., government employees. ;at a time when Harcisburg will undoubtedly tn~ to squeeze its workers to pay for a long series of "incredibly bad decisions" by management, it is probably essential tiom management's perspective to weaken tfr'. union. (b) Crovenunent workers cannot legally contribute to anyone's re- election campaign- hat xivate workers can be subtly coerced b}~ their employers into giving campaign contributions so the deal could politicize a substantial pot of money that might now slosh around at re-electior time in Harrisburg; (c) If Barlow fails to run the incinerator properly, the city, not Barlow, will romain liable -or the $220 million in debt that the machine has racked up so far. (d) II regulations on ultrafine particles, or mercury- or other emissions from the incinerator are tightened at any time during the next 30 years as scones inevitable additional retrofits and additional debt will become noccssarv. (d) The waste industry always politically alert and active no doubt appru-iatcs that Sae a li ~n q;ro~ iV1 FRnM @'.-.- d ~d~WA6L FJ 4 .ATE:, .r .~1-N~-I" o:p.; rn~., ;.r' _ refurbished incinaraU~r will create powerful, ongoing incentives to prevent three large Pennsyh•ania counties from adopting waste-radttction or recycling measures for the ne:¢ _.0 years. With $220 million in deht as a driver, all the incentives in Iiarrisburg are now set to eraairage ilie production of as much waste as possible for the next three decades, W teed the macaire. ~ 1 ~ Laura Pulido. "Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Prhan Deoelo~ment in Southern California," :ynnals ofthe Association of.american Geographers, Vol. 90. N~ . l (2000). pgs. 12-40. 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