MOSA reform is creeping forward.
The three counties that make up the solid-waste authority are moving toward defeasing its bonds and getting rid of its annual quotas, or guaranteed annual tonnage (GAT) agreements.
If the bonds are defeased _ that is, guaranteed by money in escrow _ MOSA would be able to lower its tipping fee from $106 a ton to perhaps $86 a ton.
Defeasement would likely make MOSA a more-economical option for haulers, and eliminating the GAT would solve the recurring problem of counties being penalized for not meeting their garbage quota.
Almost everyone would like to see these developments; however, not everyone sees the same path to the future.
On Monday in Howes Cave, representatives of Montgomery, Otsego and Schoharie counties, as well as the Montgomery-Otsego-Schoharie Solid Waste Management Authority, met to discuss the authority's future. Also present were two representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation; Otsego County's solid-waste consultant, Hans Arnold; and MOSA Executive Director Gilbert Chichester.
According to Terry Bliss, Otsego County's planning director and solid-waste coordinator, attendees discussed a four-step program that might lead to reforming MOSA.
``The first step would be satisfying the DEC that whatever arrangement is made, someone takes responsibility for monitoring and maintaining two landfills in Montgomery County,'' said Bliss.
During most of their active years, these two landfills were used primarily for rubbish from Montgomery County, but after MOSA came into being in 1989, it contributed garbage to and assumed responsibility for the facilities.
They've long since been closed, but will probably have to be monitored and maintained for decades, and if MOSA can't do it, its member counties will have to guarantee that they will, Bliss said.
After the counties satisfy the DEC that they will be responsible for the old landfills, they can proceed to step two: defeasing MOSA's bonds, which total nearly $10 million, according to Chichester.
Currently, MOSA's billing structure is dictated in part to assure that bondholders are paid. But the authority has reserve funds that might be used to guarantee the bonds, allowing the tipping fee to be lowered.
If the bonds are defeased, the counties and MOSA might then rewrite the 25-year contract that binds them together. This ``service agreement'' is due to expire in 2014, but might be revised before then if steps one and two are successful, Bliss said.
The final step would be for counties to devise solid-waste plans for rubbish collected within their borders.
According to John Thayer of Sprakers, MOSA's board chairman, these solid-waste plans have to be approved by the DEC, a process that could take two years.
The counties' solid-waste plans might call for continuing to use MOSA to get rid of solid waste, or _ perhaps in just one or two of the counties _ continuing fully with MOSA.
Thayer said he hopes that MOSA can be reformed to the point where it is an efficient agency that all three counties would continue to use.
Otsego County Rep. Sam Dubben, R-Middlefield, chairman of the county's Solid Waste and Environmental Concerns Committee, said he believes MOSA should proceed with satisfying the DEC mandate and defeasement, but he's still studying options for the future.
``At this point, I do believe we'll continue to be in MOSA until 2014," he said.
Otsego County Rep. Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, also attended Monday's meeting, but said he came away thinking the county should work toward instituting a flow-control law. Such a law would mandate that all solid waste collected in the county go to MOSA.
``If we wait until 2014 and don't stay with MOSA after that, I think all the smaller haulers in the county will go out of business,'' said Lindberg.
In a free-wheeling post-MOSA period, large haulers would probably construct their own transfer stations and make arrangements for taking solid waste to landfills, but small haulers would not have the means to do this, he said.
Eventually, with fewer haulers competing, rates might skyrocket, he said.
However, saving MOSA _ even if it becomes leaner and cheaper _ may be difficult, because people have been so frustrated by it, he said.
On this point, Thayer agreed, noting that many in his county consider MOSA ``a four-letter word.''
Otsego County Board Chairman James Powers, R-Butternuts, said that despite arguments that can be made for staying in MOSA, he believes the county should get out.
``I think that staying in is throwing good money after bad,'' he said. ``We need to stand on our own two feet, take care of our own solid waste and now is the time to prepare to do it.''
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