Three bid for landfill
Each proposal entails notably different terms
BALLSTON SPA — The three offers from private companies to purchase the county’s unused landfill in Northumberland have been released to the public, and they are all very different. Officials hope the sale will provide the county with a return on its decade-old investment.
The landfill was built in the 1990s and completed in 2001, at a cost of about $ 10 million in taxpayer money.
Offers came in from New England Waste Services NY, also known as Casella Waste Services; Capital Region Landfills, also known as Waste Connections and County Waste; as well as Finch Paper.
New England Waste Services NY proposed a long- term lease with the county in which it would give the county no money upfront, but pay $2 per ton of waste for the next 30 years, pay Northumberland $0.54 per ton of waste for 16 years and pay $ 87,425 for the countyowned operating equipment. Its total projected payment is about $9.5 million. It was the lowest offer. Capital Region Landfills offered $7.5 million to the county upfront, and said it would like to laterally expand the landfill to the north if the state Department of Environmental Conservation permits it. The total projected offer is about $37.4 million.
Finch Paper of Glens Falls proposed giving the county $ 4 million upfront and connecting it to the existing Finch landfill. If Finch Paper garners approval to connect the two landfills and is granted a permit modification to accept paper sludge, it would give the county an additional $2 million. It is offering host community payments to the county for 20 years and profit sharing for about 18 years. The total projected offer is $39 million.
The private company that acquires the landfill will be responsible for providing a monitoring, main- tenance and remediation fund for the site, both while it is operational and after it is filled and permanently closed.
A public hearing on the sale of the landfill is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, at the County Complex, Building One, at 40 McMaster St. in Ballston Spa.