HOST COMMUNITY AGREEMENT
SUMMARY
For the past 11 months the Town of Riga and the County of Monroe have been negotiating the Host Community Agreement relating to the Mill Seat Landfill. The town has been represented by Supervisor Bob Ottley, Councilman Jim Fodge and Special Counsel, Marc Gerstman. The county was represented by Mike Garland, Director of Environmental Services, Russ Rutkowski, PE, and Jim Fumia, Sr. Deputy County Attorney. Waste Management was represented by Jeff Richardson, Senior District Manager, and Cindy Jessop, Community Relations.
Early on in the discussions it was clear that the new agreement should be produced in the amended and restated version. It was difficult to follow the current agreement along with the three amendments. The parties felt that by creating a clean document it would be easier for everyone to follow the exact meanings of the agreement.
The current agreement with Amendment #3 is set to expire on December 31, 2011. Both parties agreed that they wished to continue with an agreement and therefore are now offering for review this amended and restated draft of the Host Community Agreement.
The current landfill facility, sits upon an area of approximately 570 Acres and the footprint of the landfill is approximately 99 Acres. The current landfill is expected to reach it’s permitted volume capacity by about 2018.
The amended and restated Host Community Agreement draft attempts to mitigate any concerns and address all opportunities from the existing landfill but recognizes that the County may wish to continue the operation of a landfill in Riga beyond the life of the current landfill. Therefore, this draft HCA addresses both of these issues. There are accommodations made in this agreement for both the Landfill Footprint and an Expanded Landfill Footprint adjacent to the existing landfill footprint.
Here are a summary of the changes in this draft agreement:
1. Section I. The “Purpose” has been modified to reflect that there is currently a landfill operating on the site.
2. Section II. Definitions have been added and amended to define new items such as: Landfill Expansion Area – an area that would be contiguous to the existing landfill footprint, Landfill Gate Rate, Permit Modification Date, and Renewable Energy Benefit Payment.
3. Section III. The “site description” has been updated to reflect current ownership of properties around the landfill footprint and does not commit the county to any expansion of the landfill footprint.
4. Section V. Letter D. has been removed since the County Legislature’s Citizens Advisory Committee is no longer in existence.
5. Section VI. The Water supply protection program has been modified to reflect that the town will have public water available to all residents due to the approval of the Water Benefit Area #1. There will still remain protection for residents who do not subscribe to the public water system.
6. Section VII. The current Property Value Protection Program will remain in force with no changes for the life of the current landfill. There is a new program which would take affect should the county move ahead with any Landfill Expansion Area. In that program all eligible residents in the Protection Area would be “reset” to the date of the issue of a permit for the expansion. There are also further protections for these residents in a more generous contribution in the formula.
7. Section VIII. The county has agreed to implement a program to promote incoming and outgoing truck traffic to utilize route 490.
8. Section IX. Effective on January 1, 2011, the town will receive their payments for the amount of tons of solid waste based on the greater of 9% of the Gate Rate” or $3.65 per ton. In addition to this fee the town will receive $1.25 per ton for BUD Material, and $.03 per ton of Solid Waste for a Renewable Energy Benefit Payment.
9. Section IX. Additional revenue may come to the town should the county move ahead with the Landfill Expansion Area. A payment will be made to the town equal to 10% of the net county revenue obtained from any beneficial use generated from the methane recovery project on the Expansion Area. There is also a provision for the county and the town to negotiate on any additional revenue-sharing opportunities.
10. Section XI. The county has agreed that, should they move ahead with the Landfill Expansion Area, the Expansion Area landfill will not exceed the capacity as is permitted today. As well as limit the elevation for the final grade not to exceed the current permitted height, and limit the footprint size to be plus or minus 20% of the current landfill footprint. Any application for a landfill expansion will undergo a full environmental and public review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the State’s solid waste management regulations.
11. Section XIII. Obligations of Town. This section has always limited the town from nearly any remedies on questioning the siting, construction, or operation of the landfill. The town will now be allowed to commence a proceeding or action to compel performance or otherwise enforce the terms of the agreement including compliance with any permits issued. Another change in B. 2. Provides a reduction in the compensation that the town would incur should the town breach any of the covenants in the agreement.
12. Section XV. There will be no change in the pick up of residential waste and recyclables in the town or the Village of Churchville. There also will be no charge to the town for this service unless the number of residences’ increase by more than 5% in a five year period. This is a savings of $160,000 per year to the town.