SPSA Intends to Stop Accepting Out-of-State Waste Next Year

Date: October 5, 2007

Source: News Room

Virginia's Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) plans to stop accepting out-of-state waste by next year. Those wastes emanate mainly from New York and North Carolina and account for about $1 million in revenues. It has been a controversial issue ever since one of its eight members, the City of Chesapeake sued on those grounds to break its contract with the Authority. Last year, SPSA was in negotiations with Covanta to import 2,500 tons per day into Portsmouth, but that deal later collapsed under withering opposition. However, the recent Supreme Court decision on Oneida-Herkimer has given the agency more options including the ability to exert flow controls which might direct all wastes through SPSA facilities rather than to those of private waste firms. The agency intends to continue taking "out-of-area" wastes, chiefly from Richmond and the Peninsula for which the agency also receives about $1 million per year in revenues. Virginia is the second largest importer of waste and last year its take increased to 7.3 million tons, mostly from Maryland, New York, and Washington DC. SPSA received 104 thousand tons of outside wastes, half of which came from out-of-state.

To learn more about the Southeastern Public Service Authority, visit: www.spsa.com.

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