The council spent three hours discussing the future of Orcas Island’s transfer station and it resulted in a little headway.

Two different entities will likely share the contract – each with its own area of service.

Because the county wants out of the solid waste business, it put out a Request for Proposals to operate the Orcas transfer station.

Cimarron and Orcas Recycling put in proposals. Cimarron currently hauls trash off island under contract with Waste Management. ORS is the local nonprofit operator of The Exchange re-use facility at the Orcas station.

After some back and forth, the council decided that both Cimarron and Orcas Recycling should receive contracts to perform different services.

After public works met with both entities, it became clear that Orcas Recycling wanted to handle the tipping floor, as it generates the bulk of the revenue from both garbage and recycling.

Public works recommended to the council that the tipping floor be assigned to Cimarron, which would continue to transport all garbage and bulk recycling (the recycling that San Juan Sanitation collects at homes).

Public works recommended that ORS should provide reuse, self-haul recycling, composting, construction material reclamation and resale, special waste handling (oil, batteries, antifreeze, appliances), “producer responsibility programs” such as e-waste and fluorescent light bulbs, and “community outreach services on Orcas to further the county’s long-term goals for reuse and waste reduction.”

“I like the passion that Orcas Recycling brings to the table,” said Councilman Howie Rosenfeld during the hearing on Sept. 11. “Local control has lots of advantages and I think they  will be much more likely to achieve our goals to reduce, re-use and recycle.”

Rosenfeld tried to convince his colleagues to continue the hearing on Orcas Island at a council meeting already scheduled for October, but a majority of the council was ready to vote.

The discussion and vote were prompted by Utility Manager Ed Hale’s recommendation that the county approve negotiation of contracts “to ensure transition of the site by the end of 2012.”

The current contract for waste and recycling disposal by Waste Management ends on Dec. 31, 2012.

In a 5-1 decision, with Rosenfeld dissenting, the council voted to accept the recommendation outlined by Hale.

Both the staff report and council members noted that Cimarron’s finances, personnel and experience with garbage give them the edge to run the tipping floor.

Responding to Rosenfeld’s preference for Orcas Recycling, Council Chairwoman Patty Miller said the goal was two contracts “that assure financial viability of each service and each provider with no subsidization” by the county.

Rosenfeld said Orcas Recycling would “better advance overall goals of recycling, reuse and long-term waste reduction.”

Miller, however, noted that Cimarron was ready now to handle and transport garbage and bulk recycling off Orcas.

Orcas Recycling Services, on the other hand, had not yet identified a transportation partner or shown the council how it could take over operations by the end of the year, according to Miller and others on the council.

Miller did acknowledge that “ORS may be the best long-term solution.”

To that end, she hopes the Cimarron contract could be limited to five years, giving Orcas Recycling time to expand its services beyond its present, and highly regarded, reuse program.

Now the county has to construct contracts that acceptable to both Cimarron and Orcas Recycling – especially providing a revenue stream that will permit Orcas Recycling to develop services beyond its present reuse business.

Public Works Director Frank Mulcahy is confident it can and will be done.

“We can negotiate a contract with Orcas Recycling so they can develop a business plan with the revenue it needs to be successful,” he said. “I think the council’s goals for solid waste in the county are definitely achievable with hard work and positive thinking by everyone.”

During the Tuesday meeting, the council also passed the final version of the draft county Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Plan previously approved by the council and the Washington Department of Ecology and increased the current 10 percent excise tax on garbage to 16 percent.

The tax on garbage pick-up and self-haul fees will raise about $331,000 per year to finance the county’s solid waste budget, including debt payments.

The Lopez Solid Waste District also imposed a similar 16 percent tax, which Mulcahy estimates would raise about $40,000 – just enough for Lopez to pay an agreed-upon annual contribution of $39,000 for its part of the county’s solid waste budget.

The tax applies only to garbage collections and drop-off, not to recyclable collection, re-use or other non-garbage services In an earlier staff report, Hale estimated that applying the tax to recyclables and related services could reduce the tax to 12 percent, but that idea was rejected by the council to keep recycling costs attractive to consumers.