Group calls for creation of solid waste district

Whatcom County Council members have thrown the brakes on a rush to get an advisory vote to form an independent solid waste disposal district for Point Roberts on the ballot this fall.

“This has not gelled properly,” said Satpal Sidhu at a June 18 meeting of the county council’s public works and health committee. “There’s still too much emotion left over from what came before (establishing mandatory collection for Point Roberts). I have a real problem here with four or five people talking to the committee chair and we’re already jumping to put something on the ballot.”

Council member Barbara Brenner, who chairs the committee and was approached by several Point Roberts residents who advocate the creation of the district as a way to broaden waste management options for local residents, ruefully agreed they needed more time. “We don’t have enough answers,” she said. “We’re going to have to postpone this.”

Allison Calder, who brought forward the proposal, said putting the question on the November ballot was a better way of deciding what was best for Point Roberts than the series of public meetings held by the Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee in 2017 and 2018 that led to the establishment of mandatory garbage collection on the Point beginning in January 2019. “Having it on the ballot allows for complete transparency and lets it be a community choice,” she said.

Council member Barry Buchannan said it was irresponsible for the council to put an item on the ballot without having heard from a broad cross-section of the Point Roberts community or doing the research needed to make sure the public was making an informed decision. “I’m going to have a hard time supporting this without a public hearing,” he said, “Not just the registered voters of Point Roberts would be affected – a public hearing allows those who are not registered voters to give us their opinions.”

Buchannan asked staff to clarify the legal framework of establishing and operating a separate solid waste district for Point Roberts.

Jeff Hegedus with the county health department explained Whatcom County, and other counties in the state, was already established as one large solid waste district with the council as its governing body. According to state law, the only way to form a separate solid waste district for Point Roberts would be for council to take action following a public hearing. “You can have an advisory vote but you still have to have a public hearing,” he said.

A solid waste disposal district has the ability to levy property taxes and establish additional excise taxes to support its operations, which do not include curbside collection which is regulated by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). As a junior taxing district, the disposal district would have the potential to affect how much other junior taxing districts, such as the parks district, could levy as the state sets a cap on the local slice of the property tax pie. “With their own board of directors, they would be legally a quasi-municipal corporation with taxing authority,” Hegedus said.

San Juan County is the only county in Washington that has a separate solid waste district established for a particular area – Lopez Island. “They have a drop box facility that they run, but there is still a curbside collector,” Hegedus said. The Lopez Island facility charges for garbage dropped off at their location – $8 for a 32-gallon can – but accepts recycling for free and has a goal of turning Lopez Island into a zero-waste community.

Hegedus said the mandatory curbside collection service operated by Cando Recycling and Refuse could continue if a disposal district were to be created. “Where these two things overlap, especially in Point Roberts where there is a small economy of scale, is if you form a disposal district and give the transfer station to that entity to operate, you will no longer have a place for your curbside collector to stage their operation.” Currently Cando operates the curbside collection as well as the transfer station on Benson Road, which the company leases from the county.

Ken Calder, another proponent of the disposal district and a vocal opponent of the mandatory service ordinance, said the disposal district and the curbside provider could work together. “We have not given up this fight,” Calder said. “The garbage ordinance is a bad fit for Point Roberts but it is what it is.” He said the disposal district could look into expanding recycling options and look at taking garbage for disposal in Canada.”

Cando owner David Gellatly said he could continue to operate his curbside collection business if he did not have a lease to the transfer station if he could find a property to move to, but that additional cost would result in a new rate case before the WUTC and likely an increase in rates. Gellatly said he hoped the county and the community would give the new mandatory curbside system an opportunity to make a difference in the Point’s garbage system and let him expand his services. “I’d hate to see us change something before we can see how it really works,” he said.

County council member Rud Browne said council members had been “inundated with emails from people who saying they were very happy with the new service.”

Proponents said they will begin circulating petitions of the Point to give council a clear idea of how many people want to see the disposal district on the ballot.