Official: Generation fee needed to make solid-waste district compliant

After a public hearing where concerns were raised about a proposal to create a $3-per-ton generation fee for garbage haulers within the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste district, the district policy committee will meet to discuss the matter further Sept. 8.

This is the second time such a proposal has been floated this year for the district, which is seeing financial hardship and has never charged a generation fee.

If the policy committee decides to go forward with a fee, they will make a motion to do so and send a letter out to various governmental authorities in Athens and Hocking counties. These officials will then have 60 days to support or oppose the measure.

For the fee to be implemented, it cannot be opposed by either county's board of commissioners, or the city councils of either Athens or Logan, the largest cities in each county.

Earlier this year, the Logan City Council opposed the increase, stopping it dead. Seven townships in Hocking County also came out against it. To pass, the measure needs the support of the two biggest cities in each county as well as from political subdivisions representing at least 60 percent of the population in the county.

Roger Bail, operations coordinator for the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District, said Friday that the proposed generation fee would apply to all trash generated within the county without regard to where it is disposed.

He said currently the waste district is not in compliance with its five-year solid waste plan, a shortcoming that the Ohio EPA has brought to the attention of the county commissioners in Athens and Hocking.

"We don't have enough access points for recycling in our solid-waste district," Bail said. The recycling rate is much lower in Hocking County than it is in Athens County.

Total fees taken in by the district last year, he said, was just over $155,000, which was significantly less than the year before.

"The landfill's business is down substantially, which means in turn that there are less fees coming into the district to support the solid waste plan and recycling," he said.

The district's current fees are at the lowest possible, he said. These include $1 per ton from those dumping at the Athens-Hocking Reclamation Center, also known as the Kilbarger Landfill near Nelsonville, either from inside the district or from out of state. Those dumping at the landfill from inside the state but outside the waste district pay $2 per ton, Bail said. He added that these fees have not been changed since their creation 17 years ago in 1993.

Bail said the policy committee members looked at both the proposed generation fee and the possibility of raising the rates of the current dumping fees, but decided it would be better to try to enact the generation fee.

"With the generation fee there are some customers in our district that use landfills outside of Athens and Hocking counties," he said. "They take the material out in their own trash trucks and to their own landfill, so that volume of trash is not paying anything back into the solid waste district or toward recycling."

He said the generation fee would spread the cost among all the constituents in the counties. The fee, Bail explained, is based on any municipal solid waste generated in Athens or Hocking County regardless of where it is taken in Ohio.

Bail said that while the Athens-Hocking district has never had a generation fee, many other districts across the state have implemented one.

The EPA provided Bail with some figures that show that 68,000 tons of trash are generated within the waste district each year. This means that the $3-per-ton generation fee would bring an additional $204,000 into district coffers annually.

Bail said that in December the district is slated to present the EPA with its next five-year plan, in which it must demonstrate financial solvency.

"That's the reason we're doing the fees prior to submission of the plan," he said. "(It's) to keep things in operation so that when we submit our next update on our plan we'll be able to continue operation and get back into compliance."

The lack of adequate finances, Bail acknowledged, prevented the district from staying in compliance in the first place.

"I've reduced staff, laid people off, and reduced services to keep some parts of the recycling still going," he said.