A trash hauler told a federal judge Friday that Davis County engages in "protectionist" practices to finance its $54 million burn plant.
According to Laidlaw Waste Systems, the Davis Energy Recovery District charges above-market fees while prohibiting haulers from taking trash to cheaper landfills outside the county.Laidlaw attorney Alan L. Sullivan also challenged a new district policy holding trash haulers responsible for the collection and remission of the fees.
But the district's attorney, Mary Anne Q. Wood, responded that the "flow control" practices don't raise interstate commerce issues because Laidlaw has no economically viable out-of-state alternative to the Davis burn plant and landfill.
"Laidlaw is being disingenuous," Wood said, suggesting the firm is actually more interested in hauling the trash to a Carbon County landfill owned by its "sister company," the East Carbon Development Corp.
And she said the contested fee system is authorized by state law and also falls outside federal jurisdiction.
The two sides argued competing motions to dismiss the lawsuit and to enjoin the district from enforcing its policies during a three-hour hearing before U.S. District Senior Judge Bruce S. Jenkins. The judge said he would consider further arguments and possibly render his decision at a hearing at 1:30 p.m. Friday, July 26.
At stake is the district's ability to meet its bond obligation, Wood said. If the court grants Laidlaw's motion for an injunction, the result would be a "hemorrhage of waste" to other counties with "dire financial consequences" for Davis County, she said.
The district issued revenue bonds in the mid-1980s to finance the burn plant, which has reduced the volume of solid waste going into its landfill by approximately 90 percent. Officials originally believed steam generated by the plant could be sold to Hill Air Force Base to help retire the debt.
But when a predicted energy crisis failed to materialize, the steam went unsold, and district officials were forced to raise the trash collection tipping fee to meet the bond obligation. About $47 million is still owed.
Sullivan said even after the district restructured and reduced its tipping fees from $62 per ton to $25 per ton earlier this year, the cost remained as much as 300 percent higher than competing landfills.
Also, the county shifted the additional administrative burden and risks of the collection process to waste haulers, Sullivan said. Laid-law, which has 260 large commercial customers in the area, will need two more workers just to handle the paperwork, he said.
"We don't want to shut down the burn plant or create a financial crisis," Sullivan said. "We're saying, if the district wants to impose a fee, impose it on the generators of the waste."
While conceding that Laidlaw has no out-of-state destination for the trash, Sullivan said trash transfer stations that could make the interstate option feasible are being planned in Salt Lake and Weber counties.