Opinion ID: 774507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Counties' Solid Waste Management Solution

Text: 15 Oneida and Herkimer Counties are located in central New York, in the Mohawk Valley, and together encompass over 2,600 square miles with a combined population of approximately 306,000 persons, residing in 78 different cities, towns and villages. Both Counties are municipal corporations of the state of New York, and together constitute a single planning unit under the New York State Solid Waste Management Plan and its authorizing legislation. See N.Y. Envtl. Conserv. L. § 27-0107 (1) (a). 16 In late 1987, the Counties entered into a municipal contract for the purpose of coordinating and consolidating the management of their solid waste. To that end, they hired a consulting firm to prepare an environmental statement and solid waste management plan. The statement and plan contemplate the construction of six facilities collectively to manage the Counties' solid waste: a recycling center, a compost facility, a transfer station, a waste-to-energy plant, an ash landfill and a C & D (construction and demolition) debris landfill. The estimated cost of these facilities was $155-200 million. 17 The Counties requested that then-Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislative Commission on Solid Waste Management (Commission) create a waste management authority to assume the Counties' joint waste management responsibilities. The Governor and Commission complied by creating the Authority, a public benefit corporation authorized by the Oneida-Herkimer solid waste management authority act of 1988 (Act). See generally N.Y. Pub. Auth. L. § 2049-aa. The Authority has the power, among other things, to collect, process and dispose of solid waste generated in the Counties. Moreover, the Act permits the Counties to contract with the Authority to obligate the Counties to ensure the continued operation and solvency of the Authority. See id. at §§2049-ee and tt. As amended in 1990, the Act prohibits the Authority from accepting solid waste (other than recyclable material) from outside of the Counties. See id. at §§ 2049-ee(4) and (7). 18
19 On May 10, 1989, the Authority and the Counties entered into a Solid Waste Management Agreement, in which the Authority agreed to manage and dispose of all solid waste within the Counties. In particular, the Authority agreed to take control of the operation of the Oneida County Energy Recovery Facility and the Oneida-Herkimer Recycling Center (Recycling Center) beginning on January 1, 1990, and to collect tipping fees sufficient to pay its operating and maintenance costs. See SSC Corp., 66 F.3d at 505 n.5 (describing tipping fee as an industry term for a disposal charge or gate fee). The Authority assumed the Counties' regulatory powers with regard to private haulers operating within the Counties. For their part, the Counties agreed to direct all recyclables to the Recycling Center and agreed to direct all solid waste generated in the Counties to facilities designated by the Authority. 20 On December 28, 1989, the Authority and the Counties entered into a second solid waste management agreement. In that agreement, the Authority reaffirmed its obligations under the first agreement and the Counties agreed to pay the Authority's operating costs and debt service to the extent those costs were not recouped through tipping fees and other disposal related charges.
21 In December 1989, the Oneida County Board of Legislators enacted Local Law No. 1 of 1990, Oneida's flow control law. The law requires that all solid waste generated within the County be picked up by the municipality, a licensed private hauler or the generator, and delivered to certain approved processing sites designated by the Authority. 1 Accordingly, private haulersmust obtain a permit from the Authority to pick up solid waste in the Counties. Failure to deliver that waste to the designated facilities subjects the private hauler to revocation of its permit, fines and imprisonment. 22 Two months later, in February 1990, the Herkimer County Legislature enacted Herkimer County Local Law No. 1 of 1990, Herkimer's flow control law, which is substantially similar to the Oneida flow control law. 2
23 Between 1990 and 1992 the Authority issued over $51 million in bonds to finance the designated facilities, to construct the Green Waste Compost Facility and the Utica Transfer Station, and to refinance prior bonds. The Authority owns all five designated facilities and operates all but the Utica Transfer Station. 24
25 In 1991, the Authority accepted bids for the operation of the Utica Transfer Station. The bidding process was open to all private waste disposal companies, in-state and out-of-state. The Authority received four bids, all from out-of-state businesses, which proposed delivery of the solid waste at the transfer station to eight landfills, seven of which were located outside of New York. 26 In June 1991, the Authority entered into a contract with Empire Sanitary Landfill, Inc. (Empire) to operate the Utica Transfer Station. Pursuant to that contract, Empire transported all solid waste processed at the transfer station to Empire's landfill in Taylor, Pennsylvania for disposal. The Authority agreed to deliver or cause to be delivered all solid waste generated or originating in the Counties (other than recyclables and waste burned at the Energy Recovery Facility) to the transfer station. The parties extended the contract to span the period 1995 to 1998. 27 In 1998, the Authority again accepted bids from private waste disposal companies. This time, Waste Management of New York (Waste Management), a Delaware limited liability company, prevailed. Waste Management agreed to dispose of the waste processed at the transfer station at two facilities, one located in-state and the other located in Erie, Pennsylvania. Waste Management continues to operate the transfer station on behalf of the Counties. 28 In the May 20, 1991 Final Local Solid Waste Management System Plan for the Counties, the Authority contemplates the development of additional facilities to provide for all components of the waste stream for all residents of the two counties (emphasis added). The Authority expressly states in the Plan that it is wholly committed to the development of facilities within Oneida and Herkimer Counties toprovide for the region's long-term needs. In other words, the current out-sourcing of the transfer station's operation is a temporary measure until the Authority brings into operation a County landfill, the last of the six facilities contemplated in the original environmental plan, and is otherwise able to meet all of the Counties' solid waste management needs. 29
30 Pursuant to the May and December 1989 agreements and the local flow control laws enacted by the Counties, the Authority has promulgated rules and regulations. The Authority's 1995 Rules and Regulations provide that private haulers must deliver all acceptable solid waste and curbside collected recyclables generated within Oneida and Herkimer Counties to an Authority designated facility. The 1995 Rules and Regulations also require all private haulers to obtain a Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Permit from the Authority. The Authority sets the applicable tipping fees, designates access route patterns to four of the five designated facilities and retains the right to redirect solid waste... to the appropriate facility according to waste production, waste origin, waste type, seasonal fluctuations or planned operating procedures. To enforce the Counties' local laws and the 1995 Regulations, the Authority employs garbage cops (as coined by United Haulers) to monitor private haulers' activities and ensure compliance with the flow control ordinances.