Proponents of a new taxing district told to come back with petition signatures

Proponents of a solid waste disposal district specific to Point Roberts are starting to circulate a petition asking Whatcom County to make it happen.

“We want to be a greener community,” said Allison Calder, a proponent of the district. “Instead of the garbage taxes collected on the waste picked up curbside and at the transfer station going to Whatcom County, we want those funds to come here.”

Calder was one of several individuals who spoke at a June 18 meeting of the county council’s public works and health committee, looking to have a measure on the ballot asking voters if they wanted to see such a district created. Council members felt there remained too many unanswered questions and told them to refine their proposal and come back with signatures on a petition to gauge public support for the idea.

Currently, the county, similar to other counties in the state, is 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.

A solid waste disposal district has the ability to levy property taxes and establish additional garbage excise taxes to support its operations, which do not include curbside collection, regulated by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). For every ton of garbage collected in Point Roberts, either curbside or at the transfer station, the county’s solid waste district receives $8.50. Cando Recycling and Refuse, which currently operates the transfer station and the curbside collection service, collects the tax from its customers.

“This doesn’t change mandatory curbside collection. It doesn’t change Cando’s tariff with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). It doesn’t change their contract for curbside collection with the county,” Calder said. “It has to do with the transfer station and keeping garbage taxes collected in Point Roberts in Point Roberts.”

San Juan County is the only county in Washington that has a separate solid waste district established for a particular area – Lopez Island. The Lopez island solid waste district operates a drop-off facility that 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.

Under their proposal, Calder said, the solid waste disposal district would take over the operation of the transfer station. “The district would have employees and would run the transfer station. The transfer station makes money,” she said. Employees would also implement new recycling options and education programs using garbage excise tax collected at the facility.

Calder said that the district would remove trash and recyclables from the Point, which Cando currently does, and would charge the garbage hauler to bring collected garbage and recycling to the transfer station. “An agreement between the solid waste district and the hauler can be made,” she said, for those costs as well as the storage of equipment. The WUTC rates approved for the curbside collection would reflect any increase or decrease in costs to Cando associated with those changes.

Cando owner David Gellatly said separating the transfer station operation from curbside collection would likely have impacts on costs to users of the garbage system. “They are tightly integrated operations and there are economies of scale,” he said.

The drive to form a solid waste district came on the heels of the establishment of mandatory garbage collection by county ordinance in 2018. Among the complaints from opponents of that system is that it did not prioritize recycling high enough. Calder said that she was met with resistance from the county health department, which manages solid waste, when she asked that they fund expanded recycling programs on the Point.

“By county code, one of the uses of the garbage taxes collected is to increase recycling education and opportunities,” she said. “Initially, I didn’t ask for a garbage district, just a recycling district, and they told me it was all or nothing,” Calder explained.