QuickTake:

Facing a $3 million shortfall in the waste management budget, commissioners are considering a combination of fee increases and station closures to balance the books, as Sanipac’s shipment of trash to a dump near Medford has hurt revenues.

Lane County officials are facing the prospect of making cuts and raising fees at the county’s network of 15 transfer stations, where rural residents take their trash. 

Lane County’s 15 transfer stations offer an alternative for residents who would otherwise rely on a commercial trash hauler or would have to take garbage themselves to the county’s Short Mountain Landfill. But the system is now facing a $3 million budget gap for the fiscal year. To make up the difference, county commissioners are weighing options that include a combination of fee increases and shuttering select transfer stations.

Here’s how we got here: The $3 million operating deficit is in the county’s Waste Management Division, a fund that primarily relies upon fees from users. Tax revenues do not pay for waste services.

The division’s expenses are about $41.1 million, but estimated revenues are $38.1 million. The division budgeted for nearly 95 full-time equivalent employees, and it runs the county’s Short Mountain Landfill, transfer stations, recycling programs and other solid waste management services.

Fees that commercial trash haulers pay at the county landfill help cover the Waste Management Division’s budget. Those revenues have dropped, creating the $3 million gap, as Sanipac, a hauler and subsidiary of Texas-based Waste Connections, trucks waste to its own landfill near Medford.

That means trash from Springfield, Veneta, Cottage Grove and Creswell is going to a landfill in Jackson County rather than Short Mountain Landfill. 

“This exportation of waste, and the corresponding lost revenue, has caused the Division to become structurally imbalanced, as services have maintained at consistent levels while revenues have decreased,” a memorandum to county commissioners states. 

County commissioners heard about their options at a meeting Tuesday, June 23, and will make a final decision, likely either July 7 or July 14. Options include shuttering individual transfer stations and increasing fees at the remaining stations. All the options include raising the current $15 minimum fee by $5 or $10.

The options are: 

  • A 2.5% inflation-based fee increase, a $10 minimum fee increase, and closing the Walton and Creswell transfer stations. The estimated net revenue gain would be $3.4 million. 
  • A 5% inflation-based fee increase, a $10 minimum fee increase, closure of Walton and Creswell transfer stations. The estimated net revenue gain would be $3.7 million. 
  • A 9% inflation-based fee increase, a $5 minimum fee increase, closure of Walton and Creswell transfer stations. The estimated net revenue would be $3.2 million. 
  • A 9% inflation-based fee increase, a $10 minimum fee increase and closure of London, Low Pass, McKenzie Bridge, Sharps Creek, Swisshome and Walton transfer stations. The estimated net revenue gain would be $4.1 million.

With the exception of the transfer station in Glenwood, which has the highest volume, transfer stations cost money to operate, even when accounting for the fees residents pay. Losses can vary, based in part on how far transfer stations are from Short Mountain Landfill, where the county takes the garbage.

Lane County’s transfer stations

The fee increases would not apply to the fees that commercial haulers pay to drop waste at the county’s Short Mountain Landfill. The county is in negotiations with Sanipac and has offered to lower its tipping fees at the landfill if the hauler returns to Short Mountain Landfill.

The county would still have to increase operations — and costs — elsewhere if it shutters transfer stations. That’s because some transfer station users will start traveling to the next-closest location, Jeff Orlandini, the county’s Waste Management Division manager, told commissioners. 

He also acknowledged that the closure of a transfer station anywhere is a loss for that community. 

“We understand there’s a lot of pushback from community members when you look at a lot of transfer station adjustments,” he said. 

The county tried to be strategic in the transfer stations slated for possible closure. The Walton station is close to Veneta and the Creswell station is closer to two other stations.

“We believe that waste will go to another transfer station,” Orlandini said. “Those same customers would go to the other transfer stations and dump relatively the same.”

All of the options would include reduced hours for the Veneta transfer station so it would be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The elimination of $174,000 in recycling rebates is also in each option, along with a $232,000 cut in the county’s climate program funding. The latter item covers an employee, who would instead be funded through another source: video lottery dollars.

Commissioners said they don’t want to make trims, but have no other options with the waste being shipped outside Lane County.

“People should really fully understand that the decisions that we’re making right now, we would rather not be making these decisions,” Commissioner Pat Farr said. “These aren’t decisions that we wanted. … It was forced upon us. It was brought to the table by somebody else (who) said, ‘Here’s your problem. Take care of it.'”

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Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.