Southeastern Public Service Authority Faces a Morton's Fork

Date: August 27, 2009

Source: News Room

The saga of the Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) in Virginia, which is heavily in debt, flirting with bankruptcy and charging its member municipalities the highest disposal rates in the country, is now considering proposals from private companies to buy some, or all, of its assets. Among the proposals is a $338 million offer from a New York company called ReEnergy Holdings LLC to buy all of SPSA's assets and privatize waste services in the region that is comprised of eight city and county member municipalities. The agency has also weighed selling its Portsmouth waste-to-energy plant. Complicating these efforts are ongoing battles between the members themselves. Some want to renegotiate contract terms originally signed in 1984 that capped tipping fees for Virginia Beach at no more than $66 per ton through 2015 and have allowed Suffolk to pay no fees as compensation for hosting the regional landfill that opened in 1985.

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