Next week’s regional Solid Waste Summit will occur with or without Spokane participation, County Commission Chairman Al French announced Friday. The two-day gathering of local government officials throughout the county is intended to outline a new framework for the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, which is owned and controlled by the city of Spokane.
Spokane County commissioners slogged through garbage issues for three hours Tuesday on their way to a Solid Waste Summit. They authorized Chairman Al French to join Spokane Mayor Mary Verner in sending invitations to the Feb. 2-3 summit at the CenterPlace Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley.
The fate of a $25 million contract to operate the city’s West Plains trash incinerator will rest with Spokane County commissioners. The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 6-1 to approve a three-year contract with Wheelabrator, the subsidiary of Waste Management that has operated Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy Plant since it began operations in the early 1990s.
Public officials are seeking a “fast-track” decision on who should control the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. County commissioners Thursday accepted Spokane Mayor Mary Verner’s call for an agreement within 30 days.
Establishing a garbage democracy in Spokane County may prove as difficult as bringing representative government to Afghanistan. The challenge came into sharp focus Tuesday when Spokane city officials asked county commissioners to hurry up and sign off on $18 million worth of upgrades to the city’s Waste-to-Energy Plant.
Spokane would have to pay a $5,000 fine and upgrade its regional trash incinerator under a proposed deal being considered by Mayor Mary Verner. The settlement, proposed by the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency late last month, is in response to a violation related to mercury pollution in June at the Waste-to-Energy Plant.
City and county leaders tried this week to buy some time for reorganizing the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. A committee of member governments voted 5-1 for a stopgap measure to discourage Spokane – which currently controls the system – from potentially undermining a new agreement.
City and county officials agree they want to retain a regional garbage-disposal system when expiring contracts begin dissolving the current arrangement next year. But Spokane County and other member governments are unwilling to let the city of Spokane maintain full control of the system, which determines garbage rates countywide.
Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy Plant violated air pollution law during annual air testing in June. April Westby, an environmental engineer for the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, said the agency’s director, Bill Dameworth, will issue the city a notice of violation as a result of tests that showed that one of the plant’s two boilers exceeded standards for mercury.
Results of the Waste to Energy Plant's annual emissions test. The incinerator is part of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, which is run by the city of Spokane. The test and the system's response was submitted to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency on Sept. 15, 2010.
If it’s been bugging you that you can’t recycle that discarded pizza box from last night, worry no more. Starting July 12, city of Spokane and Waste Management trash customers can toss that box – and whatever stale pizza is left inside it – in their yard waste bins.
Wheelabrator employee Joe Whiteman monitors the Waste-to-Energy Plant's functions from the control room Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. A bill in Olympia would allow Spokane to count the power generated by the plant as renewable power.
Spokane leaders have picked the person they hope will salvage the regional system for disposing of trash throughout Spokane County. The City Council on Monday voted unanimously to name Russ Menke director of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System.
Russ Menke, newly appointed director of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, talks about how he hopes to mend relations with Spokane County on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009.
Russ Menke, newly appointed director of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, addresses concerns raised by county Commissioner Bonnie Mager that he lacks experience to salvage the regional trash disposal system on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009.
