Regional solid waste system

Editorials covered the fight against poverty, city-county consolidation, and an anti-gay rights initiative in Idaho.

Washington’s largest polluters would have to start cutting their carbon emissions by 2017, but those who can’t meet the goals could buy “credits” from those who do better than required, under the latest version of rules being proposed by a state agency.

Washington’s largest polluters would have to start cutting their carbon emissions by 2017, but those who can’t meet the goals could buy “credits” from those who do better than required, under the latest version of rules being proposed by a state agency.

Private contractor Waste Management is asking thousands of Spokane County residents to pay about 10 percent more for trash collection beginning next year, a move that has some city and county officials crying foul. In a letter sent last month to residents of Millwood and unincorporated areas of northeastern Spokane County, Waste Management of Spokane said the rate hike for about 23,500 county customers was needed due to “rising costs for disposal, fuel maintenance and other operating and office expenses.”

The city of Cheney, which opted out of the Spokane County regional trash system, is opting back in to a major part of it. This summer, Cheney became only the second city in Washington – behind Seattle – to win approval from the state for a plan to operate an independent garbage system. Cheney will handle its own recycling, household hazardous waste, trash education programs and garbage. But it needed somewhere to put its garbage.

Investigators now believe a suspicious acid call and a fire at a solid waste plant last week were coincidental.

Discovery of a suspicious acid collected by a city garbage truck that prompted a Wednesday morning shutdown of city streets in north Spokane has been linked to a small fire at the Waste-to-Energy Plant later in the day, according to investigators. Firefighters were called to the city’s trash incinerator at 2900 S. Geiger Blvd. just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. The fire started in garbage that had been collected from residential areas earlier in the day and was extinguished by a sprinkler system in the building, said Ken Gimpel, assistant utilities division director with the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System.

Investigators believe a small fire at the Waste to Energy facility near Spokane International Airport was tied to a call earlier in the day of a bubbling acid in the back of a Spokane garbage truck.

The company that has operated Spokane’s electricity-producing trash incinerator on the West Plains for more than two decades is getting a pink slip. Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. was advised Wednesday by Mayor David Condon that the city won’t be renewing the estimated $21 million-a-year contract when it expires in November. The city intends to take over all plant operations, which officials say will provide greater flexibility to address coming changes as Spokane turns over control of the regional trash system to Spokane County.

City leaders want to know if government could do a better job running Spokane’s energy-producing trash incinerator. With potentially major changes coming over the next few years in how and where the region’s garbage is disposed, Spokane City Council members this week authorized a study of whether it would be more effective to operate the Waste-to-Energy Plant with city workers rather than extend the contract with Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.

Sunday Spin: Beat the Clock on teacher bill falls short

OLYMPIA – By this evening, we will know the most important fact for navigating the next two weeks in the Legislature. That is, are the Seattle Seahawks going to the Super Bowl. The opening week of the Legislature was little short of a love fest for the blue and green, with a reference to the team an apparent requirement in most settings.

OLYMPIA – Electricity from the West Plains garbage incinerator would be classified as a renewable energy and be more valuable to an electric utility if a bill proposed by state Sen. Mike Baumgartner is approved. Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy Plant should be designated as a renewable resource, Baumgartner, R-Spokane, told the Senate Energy Committee Thursday: “As long as people make garbage, it’s renewable.”