At a glance

Based on electricity rate projections from economist Dan Pitzler, the CH2M Hill consulting firm makes the following 50-year cost projections for six garbage-disposal options:

•$768 million to close the regional waste-to-energy plant and build an in-county landfill.

•$789 million to continue using the incinerator, along with a new landfill.

•$840 million to add a third boiler to the overloaded waste plant – which had to send about 60,000 tons of garbage to a landfill at Goldendale, Wash., last year.

•$855 million to continue using the waste-to-energy plant without expansion or a new Spokane County landfill.

•$858 million to sell the plant and guarantee the new owner 220,000 tons of garbage a year, while sending the rest to a new county landfill.

•$901 million to close the plant and “long-haul” all the garbage to a remote landfill.

The estimated costs don’t include other portions of the Solid Waste System’s operation, such as operating transfer stations and processing recycled materials.

City officials say operating the waste-to-energy plant accounts for 31 percent of the current $98-a-ton tipping fee for garbage disposal.

Construction debt is 16 percent of the total.