SPSA considers closing its doors

Suffolk landfill on list to sell

Staff

Published Friday, December 19, 2008

Southeastern Public Service Authority officials have yet to determine what the proposed sellout means for the Suffolk landfill, but it is on a list of assets to consider selling.

The regional trash authority is considering selling its assets to help pay off debt and avoid accruing more, it announced this week.

The plan involves SPSA becoming a contracting agency after selling various assets to private-sector companies. SPSA’s current debt is approximately $240 million. Debt repayment makes up nearly 40 percent of the current annual budget.

SPSA, conceived in the 1970s, is the regional trash disposal authority. Its members are Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Franklin, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County. SPSA collects waste from its member communities and disposes of it in the Suffolk landfill.

“What we’re looking to do is to pay off debt by selling off some of the valuable assets of the organization,” said Tom Kreidel, the public relations coordinator for SPSA.

The authority already is in negotiations to sell the waste-to-energy plant in Portsmouth, which burns trash to convert it into power for the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The Suffolk landfill and the recycling operations in the various cities are also on the list of assets to sell, Kreidel said.

Unloading its assets will presumably help the authority reduce expenditures, Kreidel said, because staff levels could be cut and buildings wouldn’t have to be kept up. However, Kreidel expressed his hope that SPSA’s employees would be employed by whatever company purchases the facilities.

After selling its assets, SPSA would then negotiate contracts with the new owners of the facilities to continue using them.

Under the current SPSA contract, which expires in 2018, Suffolk does not pay any fees to dump its trash in exchange for hosting the landfill. To change the contract would require a unanimous vote of the entire board of directors, including Councilman Leroy Bennett, the representative from Suffolk. The landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2018.

Another option being considered by the board is to disband altogether and force the localities to handle their own trash.

“Each city would have to contract for themselves,” Kreidel said.

SPSA projects a $16 million shortfall in its fiscal year 2009 finances. It cut $2.2 million from the budget through operational and personnel cuts, but the budget is primarily based on how many tons of trash it receives. With the economy on a slippery slope, people are buying less and, therefore, throwing away less, Kreidel said.

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