When I decided to run for Brewer City Council, I was given the advice to go door-to-door and ask people about their trash disposal. I was told that, although trash isn’t glamorous, it is the one issue that everyone in town will have an opinion on. Whether it’s the orange bags or the open hours at the landfill, everyone will have something to say.
I quickly learned the advice was sound, and since being elected, I’ve had more conversations about trash than I thought possible.
Over the last three years, I’ve come to learn a lot about trash through our many public discussions and my own personal research. I’ve come to understand topics such as guaranteed tonnage, tipping fees and electricity subsidies. And I’ve come to learn that PERC, the facility our city relies upon for trash disposal, would not be economically viable past 2018.
Luckily, the Municipal Review Committee, a nonprofit organization formed to represent the 187 cities and towns served by PERC, has been paying attention. The MRC has long been working as a partner with PERC to develop and maintain the waste-to-energy system we have in place now. MRC has been our local voice and local advocate. The partnership created a good system, and it has served us well.
However, for more than 15 years, MRC and PERC have known that a contract it held with Emera that allowed us to sell electricity at rates higher than the market could bear would end. Additionally, cultural shifts in consumer trash disposal and recycling have changed the amounts of trash handled, which led to cities not meeting guaranteed tonnage demands, which then led to high fees. Although the system had been good, this was not the system of the future.
Knowing that a plan was needed, the MRC has spent the last seven years researching trash disposal options for the future. It has developed a plan that it is now asking its member communities to support with contracted agreements.
Unfortunately, PERC hasn’t offered viable solutions nor has it communicated well with the decision-makers in the communities. When our City Council asked for additional information about how PERC would be sustainable past 2018 after stating in 2011 that it couldn’t be, we were simply told that it would work.
At our last City Council meeting, PERC’s representative told us that new markets for their electricity “have been identified and we are talking with them.” PERC has known for years that we are concerned. Those markets should have been identified long ago and already contracted for post-2018.
In the end, the uncertainty of the PERC proposal was its own demise. As a council, we cannot risk the possibility that the problem doesn’t just simply work itself out. The potential cost to our taxpayers is too high.
The MRC plan was developed with the goal of long-term sustainability for its members and is comprehensive. It addresses our needs and concerns as a community and offers flexible options for the future. The plan includes guaranteed tipping fees, rebates and/or revenue sharing, solutions for organics handling included in the tipping fees, zero-sort recycling, an $80 million equity partner, and most importantly, local control by the municipalities themselves. The innovative plan also provides flexibility in the energy products, allowing us to be much more nimble in the future as global markets change.
Though the City Council made its final decision this week, it was backed by years of conversations each of us have had before the meeting. I am incredibly proud of the work that went into making this decision for the future of Brewer residents and for our region as a whole.
Trash may not be glamorous. But this will be one of the most important votes we take this year to ensure Brewer’s stability for decades.
I urge my fellow municipal leaders in the region to educate themselves and make decisions that will provide stability and predictability for our region for years to come.
Bev Uhlenhake is the mayor of the Brewer.