by Bill Keisling (Part of a series)
One little-discussed repercussion of Harrisburg’s financial insolvency is that the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) is set to become the region’s de facto manager of waste.
Originally founded decades back to handle Lancaster County’s solid waste and garbage, the authority’s takeover of waste processing in surrounding counties has been striking.
There has been some public talk of waste regionalization. But, for the most part, the talk has been in boardrooms, without much public oversight or input.
For example, J. Marc Kurowski, chairman of the Harrisburg Authority, told his board on March 23, 2011, that “the (Harrisburg) Authority has received a regional waste management system proposal from the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority to purchase the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility. The Authority is continuing to evaluate the proposal, including the meeting that has been organized to meet with the stakeholders on March 31st. Attendees will be Harrisburg City Council, the Mayor, the Bond Insurer AGM, County Commissioners and members of the City’s Act 47 Team.” (Emphasis added.)
A year later, on June 27, 2012, LCSWMA’s Warner paid a visit to a board meeting of the Harrisburg Authority. The minutes state:
“Mr. James Warner, CEO of the LCSWMA, thanked the Board for their decision to support the Receiver in the lengthy RFP process that has been complied with by LCSWMA. He stated that LCSWMA is happy to partner with the City and the Authority in moving forward and that they are committed to provide whatever resources are needed to finish this transaction in a timely manner. LCSWMA looks forward to working toward the resolution of a final transaction and pledges their support to help all entities in reaching a resolution to provide a regional solid waste facility that benefits all who currently use the Harrisburg facility and to allow the Harrisburg facility users the benefit of utilizing the Lancaster facility at certain times and the Lancaster facility to benefit from the use of the Harrisburg facility. They look forward to the combined regionalization and management for a more viable and reliable approach to the region’s solid waste management needs and to assist with the City’s debt crisis.” (Emphasis added.)
For years, as part of the incinerator and landfill business, LCSWMA and other authorities like it have all been receiving and processing waste from municipalities near and far. When one municipal waste plant goes down for maintenance or breakdown, another region’s incinerator takes up the garbage slack.
There’s also been talk for years about regionalizing the Susquehanna Valley’s waste disposal system.
Way back in April 1999, for example, LCSWMA’s board minutes recount a Request for Proposals from Dauphin County:
“The Dauphin County lntermunicipal Solid Waste Authority has accepted the (Lancaster) Authority as a possible site to receive Municipal Waste from Dauphin County within the next ten years. The Executive Director will be executing all documents as required,” the minutes relate.
Within the decade, the minutes also reflect, environmental regulators deemed the Harrisburg incinerator’s ash field full. So the Harrisburg incinerator could no longer bury ash on site.
As a consequence, throughout the late-2000s, incinerator ash by the ton and the truckload were carted to LCSWMA’s Lancaster County landfill for burial.
Ash from Harrisburg, buried in the lush fields of Lancaster County, would greatly help LCSWMA’s bottom line, the Lancaster Authority’s minutes reflect.
But, in the end, it was the financial insolvency of Harrisburg and its incinerator authority that really opened the door for LCSWMA’s waste ascendancy in the Susquehanna Valley.
On October 26, 2011, Warner met with the board of the Harrisburg Authority.
Warner, the minutes read, “wanted the public and the Harrisburg Authority to be aware that the flexibility of the system utilized by the LCSWMA facility allows them to be able to service a large regional area and to make room at their waste-to-energy facility for sudden needs by diverting waste from the Lancaster transfer station to their landfill as needed. This type of waste delivery balancing of processing/transferring waste is performed on a daily basis. This is the type of flexibility that LCSWMA proposes as a regional waste system that would incorporate the waste shed from Dauphin County into a larger waste shed combined of Dauphin and Lancaster Counties wherein there would be two waste-to-energy plants, one landfill and two transfer stations.” (Emphasis added.)
Harrisburg’s insolvency meant that the role of LCSWMA and its executives would quickly grow to more than just moving around waste and unwanted ash. They’d for some reason get a seat at the table to help bust the capital city’s sanitation union.
Minutes of a Harrisburg receiver meeting in December 2012, reflect that LCSWMA was playing a role in the drafting of Harrisburg’s move to privatize its sanitation services.
“Input has been received and provided by the City’s Public Works Director and The Harrisburg Authority,” the Harrisburg receiver’s minutes read. “The RFP (Request for Proposals) (to privatize Harrisburg’s unionized sanitation department) is currently being reviewed by with Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA), at their request and we’re hopeful that their responses will be provided in the near term.”
At that meeting, an executive from Republic Service, owners of York Waste Disposal, showed up to inquire about whether his company could get the private contract to haul Harrisburg’s waste. “I hope I’m not too late in the game,” Don Isabella, the York Waste executive, said. He noted that Lancaster Authority had been part of the draft proposal to privatize Harrisburg’s garbage workers, and wondered, “were any of the haulers or the industry experts consulted or had a chance to look at this?”
He might well ask.
Making the transition complete and official, on August 22, 2012, Lancaster County Commissioners amended LCSWMA’s charter to read: “Board of LCSWMA wishes to further amend the Articles of Incorporation to specifically include a regional purpose and mission of the Authority.”
Coming up: I’ll examine LCSWMA’s history and charter and ask the question: how had a public authority chartered to handle Lancaster County’s trash come to control the waste of the entire Susquehanna Valley region?
