ARTICLE 3
RELATING TO
HEALTH AND SAFETY - RHODE ISLAND RESOURCE RECOVERY CORPORATION
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
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.
(3) All municipalities
that contract with the corporation for the disposal of solid waste
shall prepare as an addendum to its fiscal year 2010
contract with the corporation and any
contracts with the corporation for the subsequent years a plan that includes a description of the
process by which thirty-five percent (35%) of its solid waste
will be recycled and fifty percent
(50%) of its solid waste will be diverted beginning
July 1, 2012. This addendum shall include a
residential and municipal waste stream evaluation, a plan for the
reduction of solid waste and
recyclables generated and the process by which recyclable
materials are to be segregated. The
corporation shall have the right to execute or deny execution of
the municipal solid waste and
recycling services contract pending approval of the addendum.
Once the corporation approves
this addendum, the municipality must implement the plan
and report on the results annually to the
corporation. The corporation shall enforce the provisions of this
section pursuant to subdivision
23-19-13(g)(3).
(4) The corporation
shall notify every city or town that it contracts with no later than
August 1, 2008
as to the addendum requirements that must be included in the fiscal year
2010
contracts to recycle thirty-five percent (35%) and divert fifty
percent (50%) of solid waste
beginning July 1, 2012.
(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
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
three dollar ($3.00) tipping fee per vehicle. Any vehicle
carrying municipal solid waste shall be
exempt from this three dollar ($3.00) tipping fee. All fees
collected shall be paid to the town of
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. Section 23-19-13.5 of the General Laws in Chapter
23-19 entitled "Rhode
Island Resource Recovery
Corporation" is hereby amended to read as follows:
23-19-13.5.
Interim rates. -- The municipal tipping fee charged
by the resource recovery
corporation shall be as follows:
(1) Thirty-two dollars
($32.00) per ton from July 1, 2010 2011 to June 30, 2011 2014,
for any municipality that recycles between zero percent
(0%) and twenty-three twenty-four and
ninety-nine hundredths percent (23.99%) (24.99%)
of its solid waste at the Corporation's material
recycling facility ("MRF") in
(2) Thirty-one dollars
($31.00) per ton from July 1, 2010 2011 to June 30, 2011 2014,
for any municipality that recycles between twenty-four
twenty-five percent (24%) (25%) and
twenty-nine and ninety-nine hundredths percent (29.99%) of
its solid waste at the Corporation's
("MRF") in
(3) Thirty dollars
($30.00) per ton from July 1, 2010 2011 to June 30, 2011 2014,
for any
municipality that recycles between thirty percent (30%) and
thirty-four and ninety-nine
hundredths percent (34.99%) of its solid waste at the
Corporation's ("MRF") in
(4) Twenty-nine dollars
($29.00) per ton from July 1, 2010 2011 to June 30, 2011 2014,
for any municipality that recycles thirty-five percent
(35%) or more of its solid waste at the
Corporation's ("MRF") in
(5) The Corporation
shall issue a rebate not later than September 1, 2011 September 1 of
each year to
those municipalities qualifying for a year-end tipping fee adjustment according
to the
municipality's actual recorded tonnage delivered to the MRF in
the provisions of the municipality's current-year signed
solid waste and recycling services
agreement with the corporation.
SECTION 3. This article shall take effect July 1, 2011.