Chapter 192
2005 -- S 0304 AS AMENDED
Enacted 07/07/05
A N A C T
RELATING
TO HEALTH AND SAFETY -- RHODE ISLAND RESOURCE RECOVERY CORPORATION
Introduced
By: Senators Paiva-Weed, McCaffrey, and Gibbs
Date
Introduced: February 09, 2005
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section
23-19-13 of the General Laws in Chapter 23-19 entitled "Rhode
Island Resource Recovery Corporation" is
hereby amended to read as follows:
23-19-13.
Municipal participation in state program. -- (a) (1) Any person or
municipality which intends to transfer, treat,
or dispose of solid waste originating or collected
within the state, or which intends to make
arrangements to do so, shall utilize, exclusively, a
system or facility designated by the corporation
as provided under this chapter. All transfer
stations in existence as of December 1, 1986 are
empowered so long as they maintain the
appropriate license to continue their
operations, and the corporation shall not exercise its powers
under this chapter to compete with their
operation and activity. No municipality shall have power
to engage in, grant any license, or permit for
or enter into any contract for the collection,
treatment, transportation, storage, or disposal
of solid waste, and no municipality or any person
shall engage in any activities within the state,
including disposal of solid waste, which would
impair the ability of the corporation to meet
its contractual obligations to its bondholders and
others, or which would be in competition with
the purposes of the corporation as provided in this
chapter. The corporation shall not be empowered
to engage in the transportation, transfer, or
storage of solid waste, except in temporary
situations where a municipality has defaulted in its
obligation under this section, or in conjunction
with its activities at its disposal sites. Provided,
however, that municipal contracts which were in
existence on March 1, 1985, are excepted from
this requirement until expiration of the original
term of the contract or the expiration of any
extension approved by the corporation, or sooner
termination of the contracts, and provided,
further, that municipalities operating their own
landfills on December 1, 1986 shall be free to
continue to use the landfills until closure of
the landfills. Without limiting the generality of the
preceding, municipalities and persons are
expressly empowered to contract with the corporation
and/or, subject to the approval of the
corporation, with a duly licensed private disposal facility for
the disposal of solid wastes. The approval shall
be conditioned upon a finding by the board of
commissioners of the corporation that any
proposed contract with a Rhode Island municipality or
person is in conformity with the statewide
resource recovery system development plan and this
chapter, and that the proposed contract will not
impair the ability of the corporation to meet its
contractual obligations to its bondholders and
others. The contracts may have a maximum total
term, including all renewals, of up to fifty
(50) years.
(2) The
corporation shall charge fees for its solid waste management services that,
together with other revenues available to the
corporation, will, at a minimum, be sufficient to
provide for the support of the corporation and
its operations on a self-sustaining basis, including
debt service on its bonds and other obligations.
(b) Insofar as
the provisions of this chapter are inconsistent with the provisions of any
other laws of this state, general, special, or
local, restricting the power of any municipality to
enter into long term contracts with the
corporation, the provisions of this chapter shall be
controlling. The corporation shall provide suitable
and appropriate assistance to communities
under these circumstances. Notwithstanding the
preceding, if the corporation deems it desirable,
it may from time to time permit municipalities
to contract among themselves for the disposal of
their wastes.
(c)
Municipalities, along with private producers of waste which contract with the
corporation for disposal of their wastes, shall
continue to be free to make their own arrangements
for collection of wastes at the source and/or
the hauling of wastes to the designated processing
and/or transfer stations, so long as those
arrangements are in compliance with the provisions of
chapter 18.9 of this title and with this
chapter, and any municipal license relating thereto.
(d) All
municipalities and state agencies which are participants in the state waste
disposal program shall initiate a separation and
recycling program within one year after the date
on which the resource recovery facility utilized
by that municipality or agency is operational and
accepting waste for incineration.
(e) (1) The
corporation and any municipality may enter into a contract or contracts
providing for or relating to the disposal of
solid waste originating in the municipality and the cost
and expense of the disposal.
(2) The contract
may be made with or without consideration and for a specified or
unspecified time not to exceed fifty (50) years,
and on any terms and conditions which may be
approved by the municipality and which may be
agreed to by the corporation in conformity with
its contracts with the holders of any bonds or
other obligations. Subject to the contracts with the
holders of bonds, the municipality is authorized
and directed to do and perform any and all acts or
things necessary, convenient, or desirable to
carry out and perform the contract and to provide for
the payment or discharge of any obligation under
the contract in the same manner as other
obligations of the municipality.
(f) The
municipalities and the state have shared responsibility for the payment of the
cost
of municipal solid waste disposal. The state
will pay its share of the cost of the solid waste
disposal services to be provided by the
corporation to the municipalities at its solid waste
management facilities and its central landfill
in the town of Johnston, and at any back-up facility
which the corporation is required to provide, by
providing solid waste disposal operating
subsidies as provided in subsections (i) and
(j).
(g) (1) The corporation
shall charge each municipality with which it has a long-term
contract for solid waste disposal services a
tipping fee per ton of source separated solid waste
excluding separated recyclable materials,
sludge, and demolition debris delivered to any
corporation facility computed in accordance with
this subsection. For purposes of this chapter,
"fiscal year" shall mean the
twelve-month period, July 1 to June 30. The municipal tipping fee
shall be equal to one hundred seven and one-half
percent (107.5%) of the prior fiscal year's
municipal tipping fee through the end of the
2009 fiscal year. One dollar and ten cents ($1.10) per
ton on all garbage, including recycled garbage,
collected by the corporation as tipping fee shall be
paid to the town of Johnston. No tipping fee
shall be charged for recyclable materials delivered to
a recycling facility provided by or through the
corporation.
(2)
Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (g)(1), the municipal tipping fee
may
be increased, if, due to the commencement of
operation of a new resource recovery facility during
the previous fiscal year, the state subsidy as
calculated pursuant to subsection (i), not considering
landfill revenues and losses, is projected to be
greater than the state subsidy projected by the
corporation and the department of administration
when the projections were officially accepted
by the corporation on the basis of contracts
entered into for the initial resource recovery facility.
The amount by which the projected state subsidy
exceeds the original projections will be
apportioned between the state and the
municipalities in the same ratio as the state subsidy for the
previous year divided by the number of tons of
municipal solid waste processed by the
corporation bears to the municipal tipping fee
for that year. The increased municipal tipping fee
herein provided shall be subject to the same
escalation factor as the municipal tipping fee set forth
above.
(3) The
corporation shall establish in the contract, the maximum amount of municipal
solid waste that each municipality will be
entitled to deliver to the corporation at the municipal
tipping fee. Solid waste in excess of the
contract amount will be charged to the municipality at the
non-municipal rate. In determining the maximum
amount of municipal solid waste which will
qualify for the municipal tipping fee, the
corporation shall consider the municipality's solid waste
per capita average, the statewide solid waste per
capita average, and any other factors that it shall
deem appropriate.
(4) Seaweed
collected and removed by a municipality shall be deemed "yard waste"
for
purposes of this chapter and any rules,
regulations and/or plans promulgated by the corporation
pursuant to this chapter, and shall be accepted
by the corporation at the same rate and cost as all
other municipal yard waste.
(h) The
corporation, after the initial resource recovery facility becomes operational,
shall
charge each non-municipal user of its facilities
a fee per ton equal to the projected annual
resource recovery system cost less energy
revenues and interest earnings on bond reserve funds,
if any, divided by the projected tons to be
processed by the corporation at its resource facilities
for the year. Landfill costs shall not be
considered in the calculation unless landfill costs exceed
revenues generated at the landfills; in those
cases, excess landfill costs will be added to the
system costs.
(i) The annual
state subsidy for the cost of disposal of municipal solid waste shall be
calculated for each fiscal year or portion of
each fiscal year according to the following formula:
The annual state subsidy shall equal the total
projected annual resource recovery system costs
(minus costs associated with the central
landfill) for the next fiscal year less the sum of the
following: (1) projected resource recovery
system revenues for the year; and (2) projected landfill
revenues; provided, however, that in the event
that the landfill is projected to operate at a loss, the
amount of the loss shall be added to the
subsidy.
(j) (1) On or
before October 1 of each year, the corporation shall submit a budget to the
director of administration for the succeeding
fiscal year using actual resource recovery system
revenues and costs, and the audit of the
preceding fiscal year prepared by the corporation's
independent auditors and accepted by the auditor
general. On or before December 1 of each year,
the director of administration, in consultation
with the corporation, shall review the budget of the
corporation and shall determine and certify the
annual state subsidy for the succeeding fiscal year
to the governor who shall submit to the general
assembly printed copies of a budget which shall
include the state subsidy as previously
determined in this subsection. The state subsidy
appropriation shall be on a system basis but
shall contain specific appropriations for each
resource recovery facility. If the amount appropriated
exceeds the amount needed for a specific
facility, the corporation, with the approval of
the director of administration, may reallocate the
appropriated but unadvanced funds to other
corporation facilities or costs. If the audit prepared by
the corporation's independent auditors indicates
that the amounts appropriated and disbursed to
the corporation as a subsidy were in excess of
the amounts which would have been required for
the year if actual resource recovery system
revenues and costs had been used in the calculation of
the subsidy, the excess shall be credited
against the current fiscal year's subsidy.
(2) At any time,
if the corporation determines that the state subsidy will be insufficient to
discharge the corporation's obligations for the
current fiscal year, it shall request, in writing, to
the director of administration for a
supplemental appropriation. After review, the director of
administration will recommend to the governor
additional funding for the corporation, and the
governor after further review, shall submit a
supplemental appropriation bill request for the funds
to the general assembly.
(3) From the
appropriations made by the general assembly, the state controller is
authorized and directed to draw his or her
orders upon the general treasurer every month for the
payment of those sums that may be required upon
receipt by him or her of properly authenticated
vouchers.
(k) If, in any
fiscal year, the appropriation for the state subsidy is not made and if the
corporation has insufficient other funds to
discharge its obligations to holders of its bonds and
notes as certified by the state auditor general,
the corporation shall be empowered to charge both
municipal and non-municipal users whatever fees
are necessary to discharge its obligations to
holders of its bonds and notes, and the
municipal tipping fee set forth in subsection (g) shall not
be applicable for the fiscal year.
(l) On or after
the date established for separation of recyclable solid waste in the
statewide plan for separation of recyclables by
the department of environmental management,
only segregated solid waste shall be accepted at
the corporation's facilities.
(m) Costs
associated with participation in the state program shall not constitute state
mandated costs under section 45-13-7.
SECTION
2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC01437
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