Demos miffed by trash decision

Trash is to blame for a political tug-of-war among members of the Salt Lake County Council and the mayor.

County Mayor Peter Corroon says he saved the county $1.2 million a year by signing a contract to hire Western Disposal to haul trash from the county's transfer station to the county landfill. As the county's top executive, it's Corroon's job to negotiate contracts.

But several of his Democratic colleagues on the County Council are upset they weren't involved in the decisionmaking process.

"I was shocked when you all made that decision," Councilman Randy Horiuchi said. "At least ask our opinion."

The council members said that switching from one trash hauler to another could shorten the life of the landfill. If that proves true, it would require the county to make some sort of public policy change, a task the County Council, not the mayor, is responsible for.

The power struggle began in late August after the Salt Lake County Solid Waste Management Council voted to dump Allied Waste for Western Disposal.

Allied charged the county $23.85 per ton of waste to haul trash from the transfer station and for dumping costs at a private landfill in Tooele. Western Disposal will charge only $18.50 for transportation and tipping fees and will haul the trash to the county landfill.

In total, the move will save the county $1.2 million, said Linda Hamilton, the county's public works director. The county started losing money after Allied started taking 40 percent of that trash out to Wasatch Regional Solid Waste Landfill in Tooele.

By hiring Western, all that trash will instead be shipped directly to the Salt Lake County landfill.

That worries Horiuchi, who said the county should be concerned about the life of the landfill. Bringing in more waste will only shorten the life of the landfill, he said.

But Hamilton said that is an "irrational argument." The current estimated life of the county landfill is 49 years, and the new contract with Western Disposal won't change that, she said.

Despite an hourlong discussion, the County Council can really do nothing about the contract. It's too late to go back, Corroon said.

"I'm not exactly sure why they put us on the agenda, other than to punish us for what we did," Hamilton said.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com