Spokane Waste of Energy
Shedding Light on Spokane's overpriced Solid Waste System

Why are Spokane County's dump fees nearly the highest in the nation?

Why $100 per ton, when the national average is just $45 per ton? Because the System pays the City of Spokane over $10 million ($27/ton) to run the transfer stations, and for administration fees, rebates, perks, etc., plus another $17 million ($57/ton) to pay for the city's peculiar debt scheme on the waste-to-energy plant. The System also pays Wheelabrator $14 million ($47/ton) to operate Spokane's waste-to-energy plant, and then pays Rabanco $4 million ($45/ton) to haul ash from the plant to a landfill. That's $45 million ($140/ton) in costs to produce $13 million in electricity sales. We've been doing this for 15 years, with 5 years to go, and we still owe $85 million dollars on the plant. Even worse, the waste-to-energy plant is already running at full capacity, and it will cost anther $70 million dollars to expand the facility.

If all the money wasted on the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant had been modestly invested, it would be worth $500,000,000.00 (that's half a Billion) by the year 2010. Instead, Spokane will own an incinerator that dumps nearly 175 million pounds of carbon into the atmosphere every year. That's more than TWICE the carbon a coal fired plant releases, and equivalent to an extra 40,000 cars on the road! They also pollute us with tons of sulfur and nitrous oxides, plus hundreds of pounds of mercury and lead. They say they're tuning waste to energy, but....only 12% of the energy from the plant gets converted to electricity. Now that's a waste of energy!

They also claim the waste-to-energy plant produces enough electricity for about 13,000 homes. OK, but the $35 million spent on the plant could buy enough electricity for 52,000 homes.
It begs us to ask the question....
 

When we first looked into the numbers for the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System (SRSWS), our initial impression was that something illegal must be going on. Upon further investigation, we may not be able to rule out criminal activity, but  we do believe SRSWS is operating under one of the most inept business plans ever conceived. The main beneficiaries of this bizarre scheme are Wheelabrator (Waste Management), and the City of Spokane, which uses the System to increase it's tax base and as it's own private money borrowing source.

Analysis:

Solid waste is delivered, and the ash is hauled away at no cost to the Facility, and yet SRSWS spends $14 Million to operate the WTE Facility to produces $13 Million worth of electricity. When the lucrative contract* with Puget Sound Electric expires, it's highly probable that the Facility will produce even less revenue (around $7 million at today's rates). It is our opinion that the Facility will never produce enough revenue to pay for it's own operation. Placing a Waste to Energy Plant in an area flush with cheap electricity seems like an odd decision.

$100 a ton "tipping fees" are the highest in the State (and still rising), and one of the highest in the entire Nation. Of that $100 dollars, $86 dollars ends up benefiting only the City of Spokane or Waste Management (expenses in red above). Sadly, only $1.20 of every $100 benefits the County (Litter Control & Regional City payments)

Non-city residents of Spokane County will have paid over 50% of the $300,000,000  to finance the Waste to Energy Facility, and will have 0% ownership. It will be fully owned by the City of Spokane. It is our opinion that Regional Cities and the County should break with the City of Spokane and form a more coherent and efficient Solid Waste Disposal System.