§ 23-19-13. Municipal participation in state program.
(a)(1) Any person or municipality which intends to transfer, treat, or dispose of solid waste
originating or collected within the state, or which intends to make arrangements to
do so, shall utilize, exclusively, a system or facility designated by the corporation
as provided under this chapter. All transfer stations in existence as of December
1, 1986, are empowered so long as they maintain the appropriate license to continue
their operations, and the corporation shall not exercise its powers under this chapter
to compete with their operation and activity. No municipality shall have power to
engage in, grant any license, or permit for or enter into any contract for the collection,
treatment, transportation, storage, or disposal of solid waste, and no municipality
or any person shall engage in any activities within the state, including disposal
of solid waste, which would impair the ability of the corporation to meet its contractual
obligations to its bondholders and others, or which would be in competition with the
purposes of the corporation as provided in this chapter. The corporation shall not
be empowered to engage in the transportation, transfer, or storage of solid waste,
except in temporary situations where a municipality has defaulted in its obligation
under this section, or in conjunction with its activities at its disposal sites. Provided,
however, that municipal contracts which were in existence on March 1, 1985, are excepted
from this requirement until expiration of the original term of the contract or the
expiration of any extension approved by the corporation, or sooner termination of
the contracts, and provided, further, that municipalities operating their own landfills
on December 1, 1986, shall be free to continue to use the landfills until closure
of the landfills. Without limiting the generality of the preceding, municipalities
and persons are expressly empowered to contract with the corporation and/or, subject
to the approval of the corporation, with a duly licensed private disposal facility
for the disposal of solid wastes. The approval shall be conditioned upon a finding
by the board of commissioners of the corporation that any proposed contract with a
Rhode Island municipality or person is in conformity with the statewide resource recovery
system development plan and this chapter, and that the proposed contract will not
impair the ability of the corporation to meet its contractual obligations to its bondholders
and others. The contracts may have a maximum total term, including all renewals, of
up to fifty (50) years.
(2) The corporation shall charge fees for its solid waste management services that, together
with other revenues available to the corporation, will, at a minimum, be sufficient
to provide for the support of the corporation and its operations on a self-sustaining
basis, including debt service on its bonds and other obligations.
(b) Insofar as the provisions of this chapter are inconsistent with the provisions of
any other laws of this state, general, special, or local, restricting the power of
any municipality to enter into long-term contracts with the corporation, the provisions
of this chapter shall be controlling. The corporation shall provide suitable and appropriate
assistance to communities under these circumstances. Notwithstanding the preceding,
if the corporation deems it desirable, it may from time to time permit municipalities
to contract among themselves for the disposal of their wastes.
(c) Municipalities, along with private producers of waste which contract with the corporation
for disposal of their wastes, shall continue to be free to make their own arrangements
for collection of wastes at the source and/or the hauling of wastes to the designated
processing and/or transfer stations, so long as those arrangements are in compliance
with the provisions of chapter 18.9 of this title and with this chapter, and any municipal
license relating thereto.
(d) All municipalities and state agencies which are participants in the state waste disposal
program shall initiate a separation and recycling program within one year after the
date on which the resource recovery facility utilized by that municipality or agency
is operational and accepting waste for incineration.
(e)(1) The corporation and any municipality may enter into a contract or contracts providing
for or relating to the disposal of solid waste originating in the municipality and
the cost and expense of the disposal.
(2) The contract may be made with or without consideration and for a specified or unspecified
time not to exceed fifty (50) years, and on any terms and conditions which may be
approved by the municipality and which may be agreed to by the corporation in conformity
with its contracts with the holders of any bonds or other obligations. Subject to
the contracts with the holders of bonds, the municipality is authorized and directed
to do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient, or desirable to
carry out and perform the contract and to provide for the payment or discharge of
any obligation under the contract in the same manner as other obligations of the municipality.
(3) All municipalities that contract with the corporation for the disposal of solid waste
shall prepare as an addendum to its fiscal year 2010 contract with the corporation
and any contracts with the corporation for the subsequent years a plan that includes
a description of the process by which thirty-five percent (35%) of its solid waste
will be recycled and fifty percent (50%) of its solid waste will be diverted beginning
July 1, 2012. This addendum shall include a residential and municipal waste stream
evaluation, a plan for the reduction of solid waste and recyclables generated and
the process by which recyclable materials are to be segregated. The corporation shall
have the right to execute or deny execution of the municipal solid waste and recycling
services contract pending approval of the addendum. Once the corporation approves
this addendum, the municipality must implement the plan and report on the results
annually to the corporation. The corporation shall enforce the provisions of this
section pursuant to subdivision (g)(3).
(4) The corporation shall notify every city or town that it contracts with as to the addendum
requirements that must be included in contracts to recycle thirty-five percent (35%)
and divert fifty percent (50%) of solid waste beginning July 1, 2012.
(f) The municipalities and the state have shared responsibility for the payment of the
cost of municipal solid waste disposal. The state will pay its share of the cost of
the solid waste disposal services to be provided by the corporation to the municipalities
at its solid waste management facilities and its central landfill in the town of Johnston,
and at any back-up facility which the corporation is required to provide, by providing
solid waste disposal operating subsidies as provided in subsections (i) and (j).
(g)(1) The corporation shall charge each municipality with which it has a long-term contract
for solid waste disposal services a tipping fee per ton of source separated solid
waste excluding separated recyclable materials, sludge, and demolition debris delivered
to any corporation facility computed in accordance with this subsection. For purposes
of this chapter, "fiscal year� shall mean the twelve-month period, July 1 to June
30. The municipal tipping fee shall be equal to one hundred seven and one-half percent
(107.5%) of the prior fiscal year's municipal tipping fee through the end of the 2009
fiscal year. One dollar and ten cents ($1.10) per ton on all garbage, including recycled
garbage, collected by the corporation as tipping fee shall be paid to the town of
Johnston. In addition to any other fees the corporation shall also charge a six dollar
($6.00) tipping fee per vehicle. Any vehicle carrying municipal solid waste shall
be exempt from this six dollar ($6.00) tipping fee. All fees collected shall be paid
to the town of Johnston on an annual basis. No tipping fee shall be charged for recyclable
materials delivered to a recycling facility provided by or through the corporation.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (g)(1), the municipal tipping fee may
be increased, if, due to the commencement of operation of a new resource recovery
facility during the previous fiscal year, the state subsidy as calculated pursuant
to subsection (i), not considering landfill revenues and losses, is projected to be
greater than the state subsidy projected by the corporation and the department of
administration when the projections were officially accepted by the corporation on
the basis of contracts entered into for the initial resource recovery facility. The
amount by which the projected state subsidy exceeds the original projections will
be apportioned between the state and the municipalities in the same ratio as the state
subsidy for the previous year divided by the number of tons of municipal solid waste
processed by the corporation bears to the municipal tipping fee for that year. The
increased municipal tipping fee herein provided shall be subject to the same escalation
factor as the municipal tipping fee set forth above.
(3) The corporation shall establish in the contract, the maximum amount of municipal solid
waste that each municipality will be entitled to deliver to the corporation at the
municipal tipping fee. Solid waste in excess of the contract amount will be charged
to the municipality at the non-municipal rate. In determining the maximum amount of
municipal solid waste which will qualify for the municipal tipping fee, the corporation
shall consider the municipality's solid waste per capita average, the statewide solid
waste per capita average, and any other factors that it shall deem appropriate.
(4) Seaweed collected and removed by a municipality shall be deemed "yard waste� for purposes
of this chapter and any rules, regulations and/or plans promulgated by the corporation
pursuant to this chapter, and shall be accepted by the corporation at the same rate
and cost as all other municipal yard waste.
(h) The corporation, after the initial resource recovery facility becomes operational,
shall charge each non-municipal user of its facilities a fee per ton equal to the
projected annual resource recovery system cost less energy revenues and interest earnings
on bond reserve funds, if any, divided by the projected tons to be processed by the
corporation at its resource facilities for the year. Landfill costs shall not be considered
in the calculation unless landfill costs exceed revenues generated at the landfills;
in those cases, excess landfill costs will be added to the system costs.
(i) The annual state subsidy for the cost of disposal of municipal solid waste shall be
calculated for each fiscal year or portion of each fiscal year according to the following
formula: The annual state subsidy shall equal the total projected annual resource
recovery system costs (minus costs associated with the central landfill) for the next
fiscal year less the sum of the following: (1) Projected resource recovery system
revenues for the year; and (2) Projected landfill revenues; provided, however, that
in the event that the landfill is projected to operate at a loss, the amount of the
loss shall be added to the subsidy.
(j)(1) On or before October 1 of each year, the corporation shall submit a budget to the
director of administration for the succeeding fiscal year using actual resource recovery
system revenues and costs, and the audit of the preceding fiscal year prepared by
the corporation's independent auditors and accepted by the auditor general. On or
before December 1 of each year, the director of administration, in consultation with
the corporation, shall review the budget of the corporation and shall determine and
certify the annual state subsidy for the succeeding fiscal year to the governor who
shall submit to the general assembly printed copies of a budget which shall include
the state subsidy as previously determined in this subsection. The state subsidy appropriation
shall be on a system basis but shall contain specific appropriations for each resource
recovery facility. If the amount appropriated exceeds the amount needed for a specific
facility, the corporation, with the approval of the director of administration, may
reallocate the appropriated but unadvanced funds to other corporation facilities or
costs. If the audit prepared by the corporation's independent auditors indicates that
the amounts appropriated and disbursed to the corporation as a subsidy were in excess
of the amounts which would have been required for the year if actual resource recovery
system revenues and costs had been used in the calculation of the subsidy, the excess
shall be credited against the current fiscal year's subsidy.
(2) At any time, if the corporation determines that the state subsidy will be insufficient
to discharge the corporation's obligations for the current fiscal year, it shall request,
in writing, to the director of administration for a supplemental appropriation. After
review, the director of administration will recommend to the governor additional funding
for the corporation, and the governor after further review, shall submit a supplemental
appropriation bill request for the funds to the general assembly.
(3) From the appropriations made by the general assembly, the state controller is authorized
and directed to draw the controller's orders upon the general treasurer every month
for the payment of those sums that may be required upon receipt by the controller
of properly authenticated vouchers.
(k) If, in any fiscal year, the appropriation for the state subsidy is not made and if
the corporation has insufficient other funds to discharge its obligations to holders
of its bonds and notes as certified by the state auditor general, the corporation
shall be empowered to charge both municipal and non-municipal users whatever fees
are necessary to discharge its obligations to holders of its bonds and notes, and
the municipal tipping fee set forth in subsection (g) shall not be applicable for
the fiscal year.
(l) On or after the date established for separation of recyclable solid waste in the statewide
plan for separation of recyclables by the department of environmental management,
only segregated solid waste shall be accepted at the corporation's facilities.
(m) Costs associated with participation in the state program shall not constitute state
mandated costs under § 45-13-7.