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RSWA lowers tipping fees at Ivy MUC

written by Newspack Team | December 22, 2018

The cost of dumping some types of waste at the Ivy Material Utilization Center will be lower in January.

The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has approved the reduction of tipping fees to bring them in line with surrounding localities. The rate for domestic municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris on Jan. 1 will drop from $66 per ton to $52 per ton.

The $52 tipping fee represents a 23-percent reduction in the cost for customers, a RSWA staff report states.

“That puts us right in the middle of the average for the surrounding counties,” said Phil McKalips, director of solid waste.

Locally, tipping fees, excluding at the Ivy facility, range from a low of $45 in Augusta County to $57 in Fluvanna County. At the Nov. 13 Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted to approve advertising the fee at $52 per ton. The prior approval by the supervisors stems from a 2011 agreement that requires the RSWA to consult with the county before proposing changes to the tipping fees or other MUC changes.

“If we are significantly more expensive than any place else in the area, then we aren’t … fulfilling our obligations to provide that service to our citizens,” said Albemarle Supervisor Liz Palmer, who serves on the RSWA board.

RSWA staff said it will contact current larger waste-haulers to notify them of the rate change and advertise the change both at the Ivy MUC scales and online.

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“We currently have a list of approximately 20 waste-haulers that we will attempt to contact personally via telephone. We will also work to expand this list and our personal contacts with haulers through December and the beginning of next year. The purpose of these efforts will be to increase the tonnage of waste being processed through the new transfer station,” the staff report states.

If there is an operational shortfall, the Board of Supervisors can propose a reset of rates, McKalips said.

In August, the county feted the opening of a revamped, 11,600-square-foot transfer station that met Virginia Department of Environmental Quality regulations. The previous setup of the MUC did not prevent trash from being exposed to the elements and did not allow for the accommodation of waste from larger trucks. The county reimbursed the RSWA for the $2.8 million project.