Marion County can expect some major increases to their waste rates beginning in January 2025.
The medical rate proposed increase beginning on January 1 is substantial. For example, the current rate for a 20 gallon low volume is $26.25, but under the new proposed rate, that would increase to $44.95. There are increases in other collection rates including a 2.36 percent increase in urban and a 2.39 percent increase in rural.
“This is a very large rate request and medical waste is typically one of the last things on our list,†Brian May from Public Works said in a board meeting. “We don’t spend a lot of time on it, but this year has significant impact to us with Reworld Marion closing and no longer able to accept waste in Marion County, we are no longer able to provide that reduced cost that we’ve been afforded for decades to provide that service. As part of that, our haulers have evaluated options to help with the costs. They’ve come up with Bio Clean as the least cost provider and they could potentially be in Marion County.â€
The increase is due to the closure of the Reworld Marion garbage incinerator, which will soon stop taking the county’s waste. Marion County commissioners have blamed the closure to a new state law that requires increased monitoring of pollution for companies.
The incinerator will continue to operate on a six month contract, but after that questions arise to what will happen with the waste in the county.
“Beyond the rate increases that effect our residents, there are other consequences to the legislation that shut down the local waste to energy facility,†Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron said. “Including impacts to our local hospitals, who will see increased costs to dispose medical waste as well as to law enforcement across the state who will now need to find another more costly means to dispose of confiscated firearms and drugs.â€
Starting in January and February, all haulers complete and submit a report, which is then reviewed for accuracy and consolidated to see if there should be rate adjustments in 2025. This information is then provided to Bell and Associates, a third party.
Each submitted report was reviewed by Chris Bell, where he analyzed ad compared the reported customer counts to the collection hours, used predictive tests of revenues and expenses, compared costs between county operations and other cities/collection operations and then adjusted the reported costs to circulate the cost to each service in the urban and rural regions of Marion County.
“We have been going through a process for the better part of two years to figure out a way to implement and design a solid waste processing system that holds individuals accountable,†Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell said in a board meeting. “We’re also trying to be thoughtful about the education piece, the partnership piece and the safety piece.â€
The commissioners hope a bill in the legislature will help alleviate some of the costs moving forward. The bill would make the incinerator eligible for millions of dollars in renewable energy credits
“We’ve got a bill over there that will hopefully fix some of this,†Marion County Commission Kevin Cameron said.
