Daily Herald | Posted: Sunday, October 14, 2007 11:00 pm
LAYTON -- Private haulers are lobbying state lawmakers for the right to dispose of commercial waste from Davis and Morgan counties, a move that could increase bills for customers of the Davis burn plant.
Burn plant officials say if the plant's revenues are reduced the plant would have to make up the cost by increasing its rates. However, private haulers say giving them an opportunity to bid on handling the counties' commercial waste will improve service and reduce costs.
"I have always believed competition creates better business and better prices for the consumer," said Paul Richards, owner and founder of Metro Waste.
The company operates a landfill on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County. Except for Bountiful, which operates its own landfill, cities in Davis and Morgan counties are committed by ordinance to take all waste to Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District facilities.
The special service district operates a waste-to-energy burn plant and landfill in Layton. It serves the two counties and Hill Air Force Base.
"We're saying, on the commercial side, we just want to be able to compete," Richards said.
Sen. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, said legislation providing private haulers an opportunity to bid for commercial wasteflow work will be introduced to lawmakers in January.
"It's not going to be a comfortable piece of legislation," Eastman said, anticipating a challenge.
If commercial waste is exempted from the district's flowcontrol ordinance, the plant could lose 40 percent to 50 percent of its waste volume and that same percentage of revenue, said district Executive Director Nathan Rich.
"We need that volume to support the system," he said.
The revenues the district received over the years were used to retire a $54 million bonded debt that paid to build the burn plant and develop a neighboring landfill. That debt was retired in June 2006.
Losing commercial revenues and still needing the same facilities to handle residential waste flow, Rich said, would push costs up.
"It's nice to have options, but I don't think you want to drive governments out of the business," he said.