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HomeNewsArchivesSt. Croix Residents Rail About User Fees

St. Croix Residents Rail About User Fees

Nov. 13, 2007 — Facing a crowd of St. Croix residents ranging from irate to contentious to dubious, Waste Management Authority Director May Adams Cornwall answered questions and defended the WMA's proposed new environmental user fee schedule at a town meeting Monday at the Henry Rohlsen Airport. The schedule includes an increase in the household fees for wastewater processing and new fees on most goods entering the territory. (See Waste Management Authority Unveils Fee Schedule"). For a list of the fees, see "Environmental User-Fee Hearings Draw Strong Reactions, Small Turnout"). The fees have been a subject of controversy for years, before and after the WMA was created in 2004. Senators expressed their displeasure in a 2005 meeting when no user fee had been established. (See "Senators Frustrated by WMA lack of Progress").
Before opening the floor for questions, Cornwall spoke a little on the history and reasoning behind the fees. She argued there is a lot to be done to fix waste management in the territory and the WMA needs a steady funding source to pay for it. The new system of Environmental User Fees being proposed by the WMA would attempt to tie the funding to the use of waste management by charging fees on goods imported into the territory which, after their use, will enter the waste stream. The WMA was create only a few years ago because waste management was in a state of crisis, under federal consent orders to clean up both the landfill and water treatment facilities on St. Croix.
"We are well on our way to compliance with EPA solid waste orders, some of which date back more than 10 years," Cornwall said. "Efforts to do this relate to the reasons to for the creation of the WMA. I can tell you in the past, in the former office in Public Works, the desire was always there. The staff always wanted to, but the resources were not there," Cornwall said. "Since 2004 when we came into being, we have ramped up services as far as the resources provided allowed us to do. We inherited a mandate to comply with EPA and other regulations. We recognized, began and continued to eliminate them year by year, but it is going to take a little time. We need to expand the user base and generate more revenue."
She emphasized the fees were for large, unavoidable expenses, including keeping the Anguilla landfill open, preparing it for closing, monitoring it after it is closed, while still paying to remove waste from St. Croix and possibly opening a new landfill.
"The WMA generates no profit," she said. "We are not benefiting. We are just trying to do a job."
Up-front fees paid when goods are brought into the territory are more effective than charging to take the waste away, Cornwall said. "Tipping" fees for disposal don't work, Cornwall said because they encourage people to dump trash in the bush.
"Not only can we not afford to have the illegal dumping, but we end up paying twice," Cornwall said. "First from not getting the tipping fee and again because we have to send people out to clean it up."
Sondra Catts of St. Croix said she was concerned whether paying the fee when you buy the goods would encourage recycling. Cornwall said the program would support recycling, by paying for the WMA's current recycling and potentially by changes to the system, incorporating credits or refunds for recycling.
Some asked how the WMA could possibly keep track of numerous different fees and how it would collect them. Cornwall said it would be done automatically, along with the custom's declaration.
Civic activist Mary Moorhead, author Patricia Oliver, engineer Danny Coughlin, long-time resident Sondra Catts and new arrival Krista Schlederman all said at various time over the course of the meeting they were concerned the fees would hurt people of low to moderate income by increasing the cost of necessities.
"I urge the Legislature to reconsider this system, and continue funding the WMA out of general funds," Coughlin said.
Carlos Tesitor, a member of the WMA board, found fault in the opposite direction, saying he believed fees should be higher on some inexpensive goods that are hard to dispose of.
"Plastic bags ought to be a dollar a piece," he said. "So they quit buying the bags. Styrofoam ought to be $5 a piece. If you really penalize the things that are most harmful to the environment, it would make a bigger difference."
St. Croix resident Naomi Joseph was one of several who said households with septic tanks should not have to pay the household wastewater fee because they were not using the sewer system and treatment plant.
A WMA official said septic tanks collect solids which get pumped and taken to the wastewater treatment plant, so septic tank users still use the system. Joseph and Eusebio Christian of ECTAB Paving and Construction disputed this notion; saying septic tanks can go decades without pumping. St. Croix resident John Beagle came to the WMA's defense on this point, saying regular pumping was necessary.
"If you don't, the solids get into the leech field, keeping it from working properly and so contamination gets into the groundwater," Beagle said.
Oliver was concerned whether everyone would pay, or if there would be a growing list of exempt organizations, such as companies receiving tax breaks from the Economic Development Authority.
Cornwall said Hovensa had raised issue with the fees and asserted some degree of exemption.
"It was not our view they are exempt," Cornwall said. "It is a fee everyone pays like everywhere else, so we didn't see a problem. But Hovensa sees a problem." She said it was possible EDC companies might make a similar claim, and that WMA legal counsel was looking into the question.
There is a town meeting on St. Thomas Tuesday, at the Small Business Development Center on the second floor of the Nisky Center from 6 to 8 p.m. And on St. John at the same time Wednesday in the legislative conference room in Cruz Bay.
For more information, please contact the WMA Office of Communications Management at 712-4950 or 712-4951.

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