Politics & Government

Council Considers Extension of Waste-Disposal Pact

Authority says deal would create increased savings and stabilized rates through 2045.

New Providence Council is studying the extension of its solid-waste agreement that representatives from the Union County Utilities Authority say could provide savings and stabilized rates for the borough until nearly the middle of the 21st century.

The Authority with Covanta energy is proposing a contract extension until 2045 with a per-ton savings for garbage-disposal costs, said Gina A. Belangi, A DeCotiis Law Firm attorney and the authority's special counsel.

"We have negotiated an extension to the agreement. You will receive at least a 12-dollar-per-ton reduction immediately in January 2011," Belangi said. "The town has a per tonnage commitment in the agreement and you'll have the opportunity now, if it suits your needs, to increase that plumage figure."

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The extension, which would continue to use the trash incineration plant in Rahway that serves all the county municipalities, which Belangi says would save $276 million for the county.

The authority currently has a fund in place to ensure rates stay the same for municipalities under the agreement, Belangi said. But rates for other municipalities could go up.

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"For the rate stablization fund, Covanta is providing a $4 million annual payment, some additional benefits and some revenue sharing with energy they produce at the plant," she said.

With the original agreement, signed in 1998 by municipalities and the county, the amendment with the proposed extension will ensure municipalities under the agreement can adjust their tonnage every five years.

"You're not guaranteeing today what you are going to need in 20 years," Belangi said. "You can adjust it every five years upwards, you can't go back, but at least you can go up if the economy picks up and you have something new you need to accommodate."

Belangi said municipalities that "under deliver" with this agreement would not be penalized.

"We did have to seek from towns that over delivered excess fees because it's kind of a pay-as-you-go. You dispose, you have to pay for what you dispose," she said. "But even then, they mitigated it with the towns that didn't deliver up to their full amounts. It kind of lessened the burden on the towns that over delivered."


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