Want to welcome everyone to our October twenty first, twenty twenty-five work session.

Tonight we're gonna be discussing a topic that has been on our minds for at least two to three years, Mr.

Manager.

It is, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Very happy uh to have this conversation tonight.

Um SIPSA has uh and city staff have briefed council several times on the future of the landfill, future of um uh waste management, future of recycling, and uh we promise that we would continue to come back at appropriate touch points.

So um, Earl and Dennis are going to give you an update on where we are and a preview of uh coming agenda items.

Earl.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Manager, uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Uh appreciate the opportunity to again brief you on uh this very important topic.

Uh I have with me tonight uh my counterpart on the board, Mr.

John Maxwell, he's the governor's appointee to the board.

Uh and uh that Dennis uh as you know serves as the executive director of SIPSA, so I'll turn it over to Dennis to walk us through his presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Story.

Umor, uh, Vice Mayor and members of council.

I'm happy to be with you again this evening.

We're getting uh close to the end of this road, and um, I'm pleased to be able to brief you on where we are at this point um in the process.

Uh I want to kind of review a little bit about our use of support agreements and what they are and what because that's one of the asked tonight.

Uh effective uh January of twenty eighteen SIPSA entered into identical use of support agreements with all of our eight member communities.

And um the use of support agreements uh really are just a fundamental uh plan for how the two parties will work together um to to manage the the region's waste.

Uh the initial term of that agreement uh was um th through the end of June of twenty twenty-seven, which is just around the corner.

And each of the use of support agreements were were set to automatically renew on um that date if we did not receive written notice from one of the member localities eighteen months prior to uh the end of the term.

And that means it would need to be we would need to receive notice by December the 31st of 2025, which is next month, two months out, excuse me.

So I guess uh the question is why why would you want to renew uh the agreement with with SIPSA?

First of all, uh SIPSA has a proven track record of delivering really efficient and innovative solid waste management services for the region for many, many years.

Uh SIPSA has uh have been in a relationship with Chesapeake to to manage the Chesapeake's waste for many years, and we've been very successful in that, and the citizens have benefited from that.

And uh lastly, um SIPSA's recently obtained all the regulatory uh permits required to expand the regional landfill and give uh capacity to the region through the year 2060.

Uh that is the only capacity within the region currently, and to go outside of the region for uh waste is very expensive, and we'll talk a little bit about that in a few minutes.

Uh future disposal capacity is um extremely important to the region.

If uh maintaining future disposal capacity uh gives us the ability to be able to uh participate in uh fruitful negotiations for for space for airspace uh and also disposal rates.

Uh without it, you you're you go to the table and you're kind of at the mercy of whoever you're negotiating with because you don't have any other options.

So it's imperative that we maintain uh disposal capacity within the region for many, many, many years.

Uh one of the the issues we have currently uh is we just went through a four-year process to uh permit uh the the cells eight and nine at the regional landfill and then the regional landfill is hydrologically connected to the dismal swamp and the remaining land of the landfill is all wetlands.

Uh what while we were able to get sales eight and nine permitted, part of the process we had to give up any remaining space at the regional landfill.

So there's about 280 acres left out there, but it's all wetlands, and we had to put that into an environmental easement so that no further expansion of the regional landfill can happen.

And during this process of the EIS, uh we explored about 150 sites across the region uh for additional landfill space, and uh the core and their third-party consultant deemed none of them appropriate uh with the exception of two sites in uh Southampton County and Southampton County very quickly passed a resolution to um to not allow landfill to be built in the county.

So uh that eliminated those two sites that were possibilities.

So there is no other possibilities in the region, and you can imagine nobody wants a landfill in their backyard.

So at the current uh waste volumes, uh the landfill that we that the region is currently producing the landfill would be at capacity at the year 2060.

And in my business, 2060 is not very far away.

I won't be here, but somebody will have to deal with that issue in 2060.

And uh so we were trying to address it now.

After 2060, waste would have to be hauled to private landfills outside of the SIPS service area, um, increasing our carbon footprint, uh increasing greenhouse gas, and we would be at the mercy of whatever landfill we were hauling that material to uh to give us a fair and reasonable cost for disposal.

Uh and another uh thing that needs to be clear is in the state of Virginia, we're not uh DQ is not permitting uh landfills um every day.

And what's happening is the capacity is going down, the need staying consistent, so what you end up seeing is uh capitalism taking over and uh supply and demand is is what drives the price in.

The projected cost as part of the EIS environmental impact statement that was done in order for us to permit sales eight and nine, a third-party uh consultant for the Army Corps of Engineers this said in the in the uh in in the statement that it would cost 125 dollars in today's dollars uh when 2060 rolls around to be able to find landfill space.

We're currently at 65 dollars.

So you can imagine what would happen if we do nothing.

So what do we do?

Uh how do we plan for the future?

I think it's important that we look at long-term disposal at the regional landfill, and we've got to reduce the amount of waste going into the regional landfill.

There's multiple things.

Number one is we need to reduce waste across the the region in general, not just what we put in the landfill, but we need to reduce the waste.

But we also need to be mindful of what we're putting in the landfill and only put in the landfill what has to go in the landfill.

If we can recycle it or reuse it, we need to do that.

So how do we reduce the volume?

In February of 24, uh SIPSA engaged in an RFP uh to find a alternative waste disposal, and that's really the way we put it out.