Faced with increasing costs at Mono County landfills and transfer stations, the Board of Supervisors supported the solution Justin Nalder, solid waste superintendent, provided at last week’s meeting with a 3-1 vote.

As Finance  Director Janet Dutcher summarized, the cost of doing business has gone up every year since the last fee structure in 2012, but the fees have remained flat.

While the $5 gate fees remain the same, the largest per ton increases were on organics from $5
to $40 per ton, clean wood from $17.25 to $35 per ton and treated wood from $74 to $150 per
ton. Supervisor Bob Gardner put the increases in perspective for self-haulers, explaining that his half-ton pick-up’s load of green waste doesn’t come close to weighing a ton.

As a division of Public Works, the Solid Waste operates within the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund,
separate from the County’s General Fund. According to the staff report, the SWEF had been on
“solid financial footing,” repaying initial loans from the General Fund. But the last two years
have seen an erosion “as increasing operational costs have overwhelmed revenues generated
by tipping fees.”

The County’s solid waste operations have been functioning with a Flow Agreement with the
town of Mammoth Lakes. The agreement assured a volume of material to the landfill as well as
a commitment from the County not to raise rates. The agreement ended this year giving Nalder
the chance to look at fee adjustments. In addition, unfunded state mandates added to the
expense side of the ledger.

Another wrinkle in solid waste’s financial statement was COVID, which Nalder said decreased
volumes as well as sales on recyclables. Initially, the County set policies to encourage recycling.  The policies worked better than expected. While he referenced the Consumer Price Index,
Nalder said if he’d used that, fees would have gone up annually.

District 2 Supervisor Rhonda Duggan was the lone “no” vote on the increases. Her concern was
the distances travelled by her constituents in the southern section of the County. Long Valley
and Chalfant may be closer to the Inyo County landfill south of Bishop, but Inyo County’s lease
of the site with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power limits use of the site to Inyo
residents.