The Haines Borough’s Solid Waste Working Group last week balked at taking a position on the municipality regulating rates charged by Community Waste Solutions, the company that will soon be the valley’s only trash handler.
The Solid Waste Working Group briefly discussed a letter from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska at its Feb. 16 meeting that asked for assembly input on future regulation of Haines Sanitation, the umbrella corporation above Community Waste Solutions.
Although the assembly did not ask for a recommendation from the group on the topic, chair Margaret Friedenauer brought it to members’ attention as they discussed a future plan for community waste management. Either the borough, the RCA, or both together must regulate trash disposal now that CWS is a monopoly.
“I don’t think we should discuss this as a group. I don’t think this is in our scope,” said commissioner Jeremy Stephens. “The borough is looking at not using CWS and then they want to come back and talk about possibly regulating CWS.”
Haines Sanitation has bought out its only competitor, Acme Transfer, which means the company will have a monopoly over waste collection in the borough. Purchase of Acme Transfer allows Haines Sanitation to acquire the second and final certification permitted in the borough for waste collection.
CWS was once regulated by the City of Haines, but that contract became invalid after consolidation in 2002.
CWS representative Sally Garton said the company’s preference is that the borough control regulations instead of the RCA. “Because it’s local, the borough has a better idea of what’s fair,” Garton said.
When determining rates, Garton said the RCA only considers income from garbage “route collection,” not from self-haul or curbside recycling. That would cause rates to be much higher than what CWS has in place now.
She said one reason CWS had been exempt from regulation is because income on trash collection was less than $300,000, and is still below that number now. When CWS acquires the second certificate, Garton said RCA suspects that income will increase.
The assembly has been asked by the state to make a decision before March 3. The assembly is expected to discuss the matter at its Feb. 28 meeting.