Local garbage rates may go up, but only a little

A minimal garbage rate increase for local residents could result from landfill rates going up in Ephrata. 

The landfill in Ephrata, to where the garbage from the Delano Regional Transfer Station currently ships, hasn’t raised its rates in 12 years. 

In March of 2021, those rates could go up nearly 69 percent, from $28.31 per ton to $46.76 per ton, or $49.93 after tax. That would  result in about $72,000 more in annual fees for the Delano station, as was discussed at an Oct. 12 Regional Board of Mayors meeting. 

To cover those fees, rates would rise at the Delano station, including raising the tonnage rate from $126 per ton to an estimated $147.13, including tax. 

That would cost Sunrise Disposal, which collects garbage in the Grand Coulee Dam area, an extra $41,731 per year, based on the 1,975 tons of garbage they hauled to Delano from Grand Coulee Dam area customers last year. 

Vice President Dion Gotti of Sunrise Disposal told Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout in an email that “passing this amount through would result in an increase of roughly 7.8% spread across all subscription services,” or $1.45 per month to the average 65-gallon garbage can customer. 

“It’s actually not as bad as I thought when I ran the numbers,” Gotti said in that email. “$1.45 to the average 65-gallon customer isn’t horrible.”

That email was included in the agenda packet for a recent Grand Coulee City Council meeting to let the council know that rate increases were likely to happen in the future. 

The Grand Coulee Dam area has a total of 1,536 customers to Sunrise Disposal, Gotti told The Star, including  1,350 residential customers and 186 commercial customers. 

By city, that breaks down to Electric City having 459 customers, Grand Coulee having 485, Coulee Dam having 481, and Elmer City having 111.