ECUA Purchases Cans To Possibly Take Over Allied Waste Contract

November 16, 2007

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The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority is preparing itself to eventually take over garbage collection North Escambia, perhaps sooner than later.

Allied Waste currently has a contract that extends until 2010 for residential garbage pickup north of Ten Mile Road for 11,000 households. But ECUA district five board member Larry Walker sees several situations where ECUA might take over the contract sooner.

ECUA voted Thursday afternoon to purchase 11,000 automated collection garbage cans instead of their usual 2,000 per year.

“There is increasing concern that Allied might decide to just walk away from Escambia County and dump residential pickup in ECUA’s lap,” Walker told NorthEscambia.com. “I’ve expressed my concern to my colleagues and fellow board members.”

The ECUA board voted 3-2 against moving forward with the can purchase last month. But after an open letter from Walker, the board voted unanimously for the purchase this month.

“With added financial pressures of Allied’s commercial operation, it is even less likely than before that Allied will commit the additional resources that are needed,” Walker said in his letter to the board. “I think it possible that Allied will choose to walk away from its Escambia County operations, both commercial and residential.”

(Click here to see Walker’s complete letter to the ECUA in pdf format.)

Walker said he pushed for the container purchase now rather than later because if Allied should walk away from their contract, the containers would be ready for distribution. But there is one problem that could raise, he said. The garbage cans will not arrive for about four months.

“If they walked away before we had the 11,000 containers, we’d be up the creek,” he said. The possibility would exist that ECUA could purchase Allied Waste’s current containers, he added, right where they sit…at the homes of customers.

In the event ECUA does not take over the Allied contract and Allied does not walk away, the $600,000 spent on the 11,000 cans will not be wasted, Walker said. They will be used over the next five years as part of a normal replacement of damaged cans in the current ECUA system.

ECUA has already purchased seven new garbage collection trucks that expected to arrive in December. The trucks were purchased in anticipation of taking over the north end household collection Allied Waste routes. If that does not happen, the trucks will be used to replace aging trucks in the ECUA fleet over the coming years.

Walker has increasingly pushed for ECUA to look harder at the Allied Waste contract in North Escambia. He said complaints were on the rise, and increased pressure from ECUA led to slightly better service in the area. But he wonders how long that will last.

Escambia County filed suit against Allied Waste Friday for $1.3 million in unpaid “tipping fees” – the charge per ton paid by companies such as Allied for dumping at the Perdido landfill. A recent county ordinance requires Allied and other garbage haulers in Escambia County to dump that waste, and paid the tipping fees, in Escambia County.

ECUA currently provides residential garbage collection south of Ten Mile Road, except in the city of Pensacola. Twice-weekly service is $17.35 per month, with senior citizen and lifeline discounts.

Attempts to reach Allied Waste for comment were unsuccessful.

For more details on the county’s tipping fee suit against Allied Waste, click here.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News