Important vote on May 28th: Ramsey and Washington County Commissioners need to HEAR FROM YOU
STOP County purchase of the Newport Garbage Grinder
START a serious “zero waste” study
CONTACT INFORMATION for Ramsey/Washington county commissioners is below. PLEASE call or email them.
Upcoming “Open House” meetings:
Monday, April 27, 2015, Newport City Hall, 596 7th Avenue, Newport
Tuesday, April 28, 2015, Wilder Foundation, 451 Lexington Pkwy N, St. Paul
(both 6:30 to 7:30)
Key Points to Know:
– A “Fact Sheet” (Unfact Sheet?) being distributed by county commissioners and others contains the falsehood that trash is “converted into electricity.” Actually, it’s converted into toxic ash and air pollutants, with a small, incidental yield of energy.
– Most of the money collected by the counties under the guise of “environmental charges” goes to subsidize this incineration rather than to increase recycling.
– Your tax dollars: Over the past 27 years the two counties have spent $227 million subsidizing garbage grinding in Newport.
– The “Resource Recovery” board plans to vote on May 28th to buy the now-privately-owned garbage grinder in Newport.
– Eureka Recycling is pushing back, and has posted a fact sheet entitled “Â Say No to Newport.”
– The only purpose of the Newport Garbage Grinder is to “process” wastes for incineration, so buying it could commit us to burning long into the future.
A previous thread gave some warning that Washington/Ramsey counties are charging off in the wrong direction on waste management. The charge is being led by the so-called “Ramsey/Washington County Resource Recovery Project,” a “joint powers board” populated with all but one of the commissioners of the two counties.
“Open Houses” are being held with he first one at Century College in White Bear Lake. Public attendance was about four, but others may have given up on finding the obscurely-located room. A presentation was given but public discussion was intentionally minimized.
The presentation was full of errors and misrepresentations, one of the most obvious being the claim that presently “35% [of the garbage collected] becomes electricity.” This is an obvious falsehood–incineration does not convert matter into energy–that presenter Zack Hansen admitted when challenged. A “Fact Sheet” (Unfact Sheet?) being distributed by county commissioners and others contains the same falsehood, claiming trash is “converted into electricity.” Actually, it’s converted into toxic ash and air pollutants, with a small, incidental yield of energy.
Background:
In Washington and Ramsey Counties, some wastes are recycled. Hansen’s presentation claims 51%, compared to a state goal of 75% percent. Most of the rest is ground up at a facility in the City of Newport and then trucked to Red Wing and Mankato where it is incinerated in old 1940s coal plants, converted to burn garbage in the 1980s. Both are running under expired permits. Some unclear percentage is still gettting landfilled (dumped).
This is an extremely expensive, as well as polluting, system, paid for by high county “Environmental Charges.”
“The Washington County Environmental Charge (CEC) is a 35 percent charge on garbage service.” http://www.co.washington.mn.us/index.aspx?nid=629
The Ramsey County “CEC rate for residential customers is 28%, and the CEC rate for non-residential customers is 53%.” https://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/ph/rt/cec.htm
These charges are on top of the state 9.75%(residential/17% other) Solid Waste Management Tax , most of which has been diverted into the general fund.
For comparison the Hennepin County charge is 9% (residential)/14.5% (non-residential).
Most of the money collected by the counties goes to subsidize incineration rather than to increase recycling. Costs are about doubled, and the counties “buy down” the tipping fees at the Newport grinder so waste haulers will be willing to go there rather than to cheaper landfills.
Over the past 27 years the two counties have spent $227 million subsidizing garbage grinding in Newport. They have spend far less on recycling/zero waste. (The exact amounts spent on recycling are unclear.) THIS is why recycling rates have stagnated in Minnesota while disposal costs have increased.
What’s really going on right now?
The “Resource Recovery” board plans to vote on May 28th to buy the now-privately-owned garbage grinder in Newport. The admitted reason is that if it becomes a publicly owned facility the counties can enact “flow control,” forcing all garbage to be hauled to the grinder in Newport. (Pursuant to a US Supreme Court decision, “flow control” can only be used to force garbage to publicly owned facilities.) An unregulated monopoly would be established.
Then, able to use compulsion rather than incentives, the counties would no longer have to “buy down” the tipping fees, and would be able to use the “environmental charge” money for other schemes such as anaerobic digesters and incinerators. (They would call the incinerator a “gasifier” or something else.) Envision costs going up even more and the incinerator pollution (maybe) being relocated from Red Wing and Mankato to Newport.
Thus the counties would get deeper and deeper into incineration at great cost and with harm to air quality.
The Counties have not seriously considered non-incineration, “zero waste” alternatives.
To it’s credit, Eureka Recycling is pushing back, and has posted a fact sheet entitled “Say No to Newport.”
Contact information for the Ramsey County Commissioners:
In Ramsey County 651-266-8350 is the phone line for all the Commissioners.
District 1 – Blake Huffman representing Arden Hills, Gem Lake, Mounds View, North Oaks, Shoreview,
Vadnais Heights, and White Bear Township blake.huffman@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 2 – Mary Jo McGuire representing Lauderdale, Little Canada, Mounds View (Precinct 4), New
Brighton, Roseville, and St. Anthony maryjomcguire@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 3 – Janice Rettman representing Falcon Heights, St Paul Neighborhoods in District 5, North
End/South Como (District 6), Como Park, Frogtown (District 7), Summit-University, and Hamline-Midway janice.rettman@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 4 – Toni Carter representing Crocus Hill, Desnoyer Park, Hamline-Midway (Part), Highland
Park (Part), Lexington-Hamline, Macalester-Groveland (Part), Merriam Park, Snelling-Hamline, Summit Hill,
St. Anthony Park and Summit-University Toni.Carter@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 5 – Rafael Ortega representing Macalester-Groveland (Precincts 3-8 and 3-14), Highland Park, West
7th, Capitol Heights, Downtown, The West Side, Railroad Island, Dayton’s Bluff and Mounds Blvd on the East
Side Rafael.E.Ortega@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 6 – (Chair) Jim McDonough representing Daytons Bluff, East Side, Hayden Heights, Hazel Park,
Payne-Phalen, and Sunray-Battle Creek Jim.McDonough@co.ramsey.mn.us
District 7 – Victoria Reinhardt representing Maplewood, North St. Paul, the City of White Bear Lake, and the
Hillcrest area of St. Paul (Ward 6 Precinct 12) Victoria.Reinhardt@co.ramsey.mn.us
Contact information for the Washington County Commissioners
District 1 – Fran Miron 651-430-6211 fran.miron@co.washington.mn.us
District 2 – Ted Bearth 651-738-2425 ted.bearth@co.washington.mn.us
District 3 – Gary Kriesel 651-430-6213 gary.kriesel@co.washington.mn.us
District 4 – Karla Bigham 651-430-6214 karla.bigham@co.washington.mn.us
District 5 – Lisa Weik 651-430-6215 Email Lisa Weik lisa.weik@co.washington.mn.us
For more information see: http://neighborsagainsttheburner.org/, https://alanmuller.com/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_waste, http://www.grrn.org/page/what-zero-waste, http://www.zerowaste.org/about-zwa.html, or call 302.299.6783.
One Response to ALERT: Ramsey and Washington County Commissioners need to HEAR FROM YOU