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PHOTO BY JOHN LARSON

FINAL DESTINATION. The city of Tacoma currently sends its trash to this landfill operated by LRI along Meridian Avenue East in Graham.

Tacoma explores its landfill options

By John Larson

The city of Tacoma may need to find a new place for its garbage.

The city signed a contract in 2000 with LRI, which operates a landfill in Graham. While the deal was for 20 years, a conditional use permit restricted Tacoma to a limit of 2,000,000 tons of garbage.

Staff from the Public Works Department provided an update on the situation to Tacoma City Council’s Environment and Public Works Committee Aug. 13.

Gary Kato told the committee of all the local governments that send their waste to the LRI facility in Graham, Tacoma is only one with such a cap. There are indications it might reach this limit in late 2010 or early 2011, much earlier than the 20 years that were negotiated in 2000. He said staff had concerns about this at the time of the initial permitting.

City staff has met with county staff and LRI officials, who told them language to lift the cap in the current contract will not be forwarded and discussion will be delayed until an update in 2010.

The city’s response was 2010 is unacceptable.

If staff find out in 2010 they are about to hit the cap the city would be in big trouble, needing a new landfill on short notice. To avoid such a situation, Cato said staff has been exploring other options.

Rising fuel costs could make sending the trash to a landfill farther away quite expensive, he said. Shipping it by rail may be a better option, he noted.

An interesting factor in the current deal is the city pays $27 per ton to send its trash to LRI, while the county pays $42. Cato said this is because the city has considerable control over its garbage supply and can generally predict the amount. The county does not have this situation.

“They are really in a tough position to get a better rate,” Cato said.

“When we control a large, predictable amount, it is a commodity for LRI,” said Mike Slevin, interim public works director.

Slevin cautioned if Tacoma were to pull out of its deal early, it could jeopardize other matters where the city and county work closely together.

“This is hot-button issue,” Cato remarked. “Things could go sideways.”

LRI has proposed a blended approach, by which 75 percent of Tacoma’s trash would keep going to Graham and the remainder would be sent elsewhere by rail. The rate would increase to $42 per ton. City staff has been informed that lifting Tacoma’s cap is more acceptable to Pierce County Council with this blended approach.

This would drive up Tacoma’s costs by around $2.4 million per year.

Staff has explored the possibility of shipping all the trash by rail outside the county. As no proposals have been sought, they do not know exactly how much more this would cost, but they estimate it would be at least $600,000 more per year than currently. Fuel costs could alter this analysis.

Staff is developing a request for proposals for other service providers. They hope to issue it by the end of this year.

Cato said the ideal situation would be a facility where trash could be “picked,” or have recyclable material separated.

Councilmember Jake Fey said this points to a need for Tacoma to reduce its waste stream, both for environmental and economic reasons. “We need to communicate to our customers that we need to up the ante on waste stream reduction.”

Slevin said a considerable amount of paper, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles is being recycled by Tacoma residents. “The next quantum leap is organics and construction materials.”

“We really need to get the message to the people that they are part of the solution,” Fey remarked.

“We are talking some behavior changes,” added Councilmember Connie Ladenburg.

One short-term solution would be to divert garbage trucks to the city’s landfill near the border with Fircrest. It is used primarily by residents hauling junk from their homes. For weekly garbage collection, this facility has one year of capacity left.

“We are hoping not to bring that into play,” Cato remarked.

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