Mitigation fees collected by Tooele County from hazardous waste companies and a landfill have dropped for a third straight year.
In 2008, the county collected $6.4 million in mitigation fees, a drop of 30 percent from the 2007 total of $9.1 million.
The fees, which can fluctuate with a company’s business success, are collected to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of five companies, most dealing with hazardous materials: EnergySolutions, Clean Harbors (Aragonite and Grassy Mountain facilities), Allied Waste (recently merged with Republic Services Inc.) and EG&G, the operator of Deseret Chemical Depot.
Since the hazardous waste corridor was established in the 1980s, the county has become increasingly reliant on mitigation fees as a source of revenue. Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst said declining mitigation fees have a direct impact on the county.
“Budgets are tight already, so we’ve had to do some things based on the drop in sales tax and the drop in mitigation fees,” he said, adding that includes a freeze on hiring. “We’re just tightening our belts and hoping we get through this storm.”
The biggest reason for the drop in mitigation fees is slower business for the county’s largest hazardous waste company, EnergySolutions, which operates a low-level nuclear waste disposal facility at Clive,
EnergySolutions accounted for almost three-fourths of all mitigation fees paid in 2008. The company contributed $4.6 million last year to the county, compared with $6.1 million in 2007 — a decrease of 24 percent. Its mitigation fees are approximately 5 percent of contract revenues.
Mark Walker, a spokesman for EnergySolutions, said less waste was taken in last year than in 2007, which accounts for the decrease.
“The mitigation fees are in direct correlation with the amount of waste that we received,” he said. “So in this case there was a drop from 2007 to 2008 because there was less waste disposed of.”
EnergySolutions hit a peak in 2005 of $12.1 million in mitigation fees. While Walker said contract revenues, and thus fees, could rise in the future, he doesn’t expect to contribute that much to county coffers ever again.
“We’ll never reach those types of numbers just because there’s not the waste to dispose of,” he said.
EG&G’s mitigation fees totaled $393,612 in 2008 — a steep drop from $1.8 million the year before.
Alaine Grieser, spokeswoman for Deseret Chemical Depot, said the decrease in 2008 is because Deseret Chemical Depot processed less chemical agent — a trend that will likely continue in 2009 because of the smaller munitions that will be destroyed.
The facility still has a little more than 3,000 tons left in liquid amounts, and Grieser said they anticipate being finished by the end of 2011.
“In 2007 we were just destroying bulk containers and those are relatively easy to punch a hole in and drain and put through the incinerators,” she said. “In 2007 we destroyed approximately 1,700 tons of agent. But in 2008 one of the major campaigns was to destroy 155 mm projectiles, and they hold less agent. A ton container holds about 170 gallons of agent, whereas 155 projectiles hold 1 gallon, so it takes a lot longer to destroy in 1 gallon increments. Draining the smaller 155 is an involved process, which resulted in a significantly smaller amount of total agent drained.”
Allied Waste, which operates a landfill in Rowley, recently merged with Republic Services. The announcement was made Dec. 5 and the combined company is now called Republic Services, and based in Phoenix. In 2008, Allied Waste paid $552,991 in mitigation fees, compared with $607,491 in 2007 — roughly a 9 percent decrease. Its mitigation fees are based on tons of waste disposed of.
Only one of the companies that pays mitigation fees saw an increase last year: Clean Harbors.
Clean Harbors pays a set amount every year, with increases tied to the consumer price index. The company’s Grassy Mountain facility is a hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal operation near Knolls. Its Aragonite facility is an incinerator, transfer and storage operation about 16 miles from Delle.
Mitigation fees taken in from Clean Harbors’ Grassy Mountain facility increased 37 percent last year, from $415,422 in 2007 to $569,408 last year. Clean Harbors’ Aragonite facility contributed nearly $301,000 to county coffers in 2008, also up 37 percent from $219,585 in 2007.
Hurst said even with mitigation fees on the decline, he believes these companies provide a needed service.
“We’ve got to handle the waste and we’ve got to handle it correctly,” he said. “A lot of the waste that goes to EnergySolutions, for example, was sitting in the yards of businesses and so I think we’re handling those a lot more safely so that’s a good reason to keep that [hazardous waste] corridor open.”
Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com
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