A recent Mankato Free Press story about refuse-derived fuel processing (“BEC continues weighing new RDF facility options”) mentioned how Blue Earth County currently partners with our subsidiary at LJP Waste Solutions: Minnesota Waste Processing Company.
It’s been a close, public-private partnership since 1993, during which time we’ve worked together to effectively transform waste into clean energy for use by Xcel Energy.
MWPC’s lease with Xcel ends in 2027, because the utility prefers having only Xcel-owned buildings on its property. We can appreciate Xcel’s position, so we’ll soon start building a new RDF-processing facility on our North Mankato property, which is in Nicollet County.
Blue Earth County, as the story’s headline indicated, is also considering building a plant. The result would be two RDF plants very close together — one in Blue Earth County and one in Nicollet County — causing unnecessary redundancies while increasing the burden on Blue Earth County taxpayers and the environment.
The Blue Earth County plant is estimated to cost taxpayers $25.9 million plus another $500,000 a year in ongoing maintenance. A new Minnesota Waste Processing Company plant will cost taxpayers nothing, since ours is a private-sector entity that is investing millions of our own dollars.
Additionally, higher operating costs for a Blue Earth County plant — due to paying off the construction, hiring transport drivers, traveling longer distances and more — would need to be passed on to customers.
Garbage rates for Blue Earth County homeowners and businesses could increase significantly with their new plant. How significantly? By 50% for homeowners, while rates for businesses could triple. (Those aren’t my figures. They’re part of Blue Earth County’s own analysis.)
Having two RDF-processing plants would also unnecessarily put a private-sector company in competition with Blue Earth County. We always welcome competition, but taxpayers might not in this case.
The county has indicated its current budgetary challenges could lead to reduced services, a “voluntary furlough program” for staff or more. In such an environment, why would the county spend $25.9 million when it doesn’t need to?
Speaking of the environment, there would be one additional downside to a plant owned by Blue Earth County. Its proposed site at the Ponderosa Landfill would be 9.8 miles from Xcel Energy. LJP’s new Minnesota Waste Processing Company site in North Mankato would be fewer than 5 miles from Xcel. That may not seem like much of a difference, until you consider there would be as many as 3,000 large semi-truckloads on the roads each year. The difference in the two distances would result in a doubling of greenhouse gases with a Blue Earth County facility.
LJP’s 32 years of local RDF and alternative fuel production experience make us well qualified to design, operate and manage the significant complexities that are inherent in this industry. We have invested millions of dollars in our Blue Earth County operations over the years and will soon invest millions more in Nicollet County to continue processing RDF here while extending the life of the Ponderosa Landfill.
We’ll do this without burdening taxpayer budgets or having citizens assume any operational risk. Plus, and as we always have, we will guarantee that all residential Blue Earth County waste will be processed into RDF, provided Xcel’s plant remains in full service. That’s about as firm a guarantee for a public-private partnership as can be had.
Remember, no matter what Blue Earth County decides, LJP is building a new facility of our own. We have many customers outside of Blue Earth County who will continue to need the services we provide, so we’ll need our own plant.
We take pride in helping the community and businesses achieve their zero-landfill goals. We know Blue Earth County staff and commissioners do, too. We’ve worked closely with them for years and we know they’re committed to diligently addressing their constituents’ needs, now and in the future. So are we.
There’s a logical solution that will benefit everyone, but it just hasn’t been perfected yet. What has been perfected, though, is a public-private partnership that has served the community well for 32 years.
We believe it makes sense to continue that public-private partnership, even though the private entity in the partnership will soon be located just across the border in Nicollet County.
We’re here to assist in planning, exchanging ideas and further helping Blue Earth County and the community during this important process.
Kent Harrell is the LJP Waste Solutions president.