[StBernard] St. Bernard officials fear garbage contract may dump extra fees onto parish

[Westley Annis]

worth repeating:  "No other local government entity has such a deal".  
but not really sure what the ""deal""  is.


New construction debris is the owner's or contractor's responsibility.
If we choose to use an SDT dumpster for our rebuild debris, than our
agreement with SDT should cover the costs of disposal.  New construction
debris should not be billed to our municipality.


While it seems to me that the largest amount of household waste consists of
packaging,  any effort to recycle and otherwise reduce the amount sent to
the landfill will make a difference.   Churches, schools and other
organizations could have fund raisers through newspaper drives.  Safe and
convenient drop off bins for aluminum cans, glass and plastics could be
located at places like Home Depot and Winn Dixie.  These types of ideas were
included in the parish's pollution reduction plan submitted by the CARE
Forum.

SJK


-----Original Message-----
St. Bernard officials fear garbage contract may dump extra fees onto parish
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Wednesday October 22, 2008, 10:47 PM

After months of higher-than-usual bills for garbage disposal, St. Bernard
Parish officials are looking into whether a past agreement with SDT Waste &
Debris put the parish on the hook for more than $1 million worth of
unintended trash and debris costs at a local landfill.

At issue is how much waste the parish should be paying to dispose of:
routine curbside garbage and debris, or curbside plus other construction
debris.

Since early 2007, the answer has been vague.

That was when the former parish government administration reached an
agreement allowing SDT to operate the parish's waste transfer site on Paris
Road. In exchange for getting full use of the site, SDT agreed haul the
parish's curbside garbage to River Birch Landfill in Waggaman on company
trucks free of charge. The parish still paid for disposal costs at the
landfill and a pickup fee for each household.

Parish President Craig Taffaro noticed in recent months that the bills from
River Birch were much higher than the amount of trash that should have been
generated from the curbside pickup contract with SDT.

"If we strictly calculate our curbside pickup, we don't believe that can
account for the tonnage we're being charged, " Taffaro said Wednesday. "The
only other thing that could be happening is that other sources of debris
wound up being credited against our tonnage."

Under SDT's 10-year contract with the parish, curbside garbage is brought to
the transfer site on Paris Road, along with construction debris and other
waste brought by contractors or by SDT trucks from elsewhere in the metro
area.

Sidney Torres IV, who runs SDT, said the agreement made before Taffaro's
administration would lump construction debris generated by parish residents
in with the regular residential garbage picked up by SDT. The additional
debris should come as no surprise to a parish dealing with waves of cleanup,
gutting and new construction stemming from Hurricane Katrina, he said.

"All that new construction debris that went on in the parish, it all came
through that facility, " Torres said. "Of course the waste bill and debris
bill is going to be bigger than pre-Katrina, because the whole parish was
under water."

Torres said the company strictly separates trucks carrying St. Bernard waste
and trucks carrying debris from elsewhere, and bills them accordingly at the
landfill.

Based on preliminary calculations, Taffaro told the Parish Council Tuesday
that the parish may have paid $1.8 million in debris disposal costs that
were unrelated to the curbside garbage pickup. Torres has argued that the
parish has benefited greatly from not having to pay transport costs to the
landfill, which can be $200 a ton in neighboring municipalities.

No other local government entity has such a deal with SDT, he said.

Taffaro and Torres reached an agreement for October that will cap the
tonnage for which the parish must pay landfill disposal costs at 3,000 tons.
The amount of garbage in recent months has been much higher. In August the
parish was billed for 8,000 tons, and in January the parish was billed for
12,000 tons, Taffaro said.

But that agreement between the parish and SDT is only for this month, and
Taffaro said the parish is working to craft a long-term accord on the trash
pickup. The parish still intends to pay for debris that residents dump into
large bins at the transfer site, but contractors or residents who have too
much debris to dump in the bins may have to pay SDT directly to dispose of
the waste.

"We have to look at making sure that we know what we're supposed to pay for
and what we're not supposed to pay for, " Taffaro said.

. . . . . . .

Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.