INSIDE

Sounds like a rate increase is coming

Local garbage company owner Arthur Wilkowski is again asking to be allowed to take Point Roberts trash to the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) landfill adjacent to Burns Bog. If he isn’t, he says it’s likely garbage rates will go up again.

“Last year, despite healthy border crossings and a building boom, my tonnage dropped,” said Wilkowski. “Next time I make a rate case, rates will need to go up again because garbage is leaving the system.”

In an early March request to the GVRD, the city of Vancouver that owns the landfill and the corporation of Delta, where the facility is located, Wilkowski argued that a substantial portion of Point Roberts garbage is already ending up at the landfill site, so why not all of it? “All sorts of stuff goes across, it’s pretty loose,” said Wilkowski.

Canadian drop-box companies, specifically Timbers Disposal, will deliver and haul away six-yard and bigger containers for a flat fee of $300 Cdn and up. The company can operate across the border because they don’t accept household garbage, only construction waste taken to a wood recycler in Vancouver.

Point Recycling and Refuse (PRR) will also deliver containers, charging a small pick-up and drop off fee and the transfer station rate of 11 cents per pound. “I’ve got some containers that are a little more and some that are a little less,” he said, when asked to compare his rates to the Canadian competitor. For example, he cited a case of two 12-yard containers of waterlogged debris from the recent flooding that was disposed of at the local facility for $1,100. “It’s more that there’s a perception it costs more here,” he said.

If the garbage stream continues to go north however, Wilkowski said he will have to charge more to get what remains around to Bellingham because he will have further losses in economy of scale. Since the unusable construction waste collected by Canadian companies ultimately ends up on the Burns Bog landfill, Wilkowski is arguing, it isn’t fair to make the rest of the Point’s garbage go to Bellingham. Ultimately, he said, the additional $50,000 that costs in a year is passed on to the consumer.

Wilkowski said another reason he is again approaching the GVRD is at the suggestion of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) auditor who reviewed the company’s rates and suggested that would get the lowest possible rates for garbage customers on the Point. “They made inquiries for us and confirmed that we are prohibited from the facility,” Wilkowski said.

Ken Carrusco, a GVRD solid waste engineer confirmed that current operational plans, permits and agreements between the municipalities and his agency set specific limits on where waste can come from when it goes into the bog landfill. “You would have to pursue specific amendments to the regulatory structure,” he said. “The challenge would be for the region, Vancouver and Delta to enter into consultation.”

Looking at the 11 cents a pound charged by PRR, which comes to approximately $286 Cdn per metric ton, compared to $65 Cdn charged for waste disposal at GVRD facilities, Carrusco said “ I can see why some of you are coming across the border.”

Carrusco couldn’t confirm Point Roberts construction waste was ending up in the landfill, but agreed there was an “unusable residue stream (from wood recyclers) and I would anticipate some of that goes there.” The GVRD relies on users for information about the origin of the waste and Carrusco said, “I would be surprised if the city of Vancouver is monitoring people.”

Wilkowski said, with Point Roberts waste amounting to less in a year than what the Burns Bog site receives in a day, it shouldn’t require an extensive process to let the garbage hauler in the door. “I’ve been asking since I bought this company and I’m being excluded because I was polite enough to ask,” he said.