The San Juan County Communications Office issued the following press release regarding the Friday Harbor Town Council’s letter:

A surprise decision by the Friday Harbor Town Council has re-opened the debate over siting the County’s San Juan Island transfer station and raised questions about how solid waste will be handled on the island in the immediate future.

The Town Council adopted a letter today informing the County Council that “… we feel at this time that it my not be in the public’s best interest to declare any portion of our 26 acres as surplus.” The area referred to includes the land leased by San Juan County for its current transfer station and the site the Council selected 11 months ago as the location for its new transfer station facility. That selection was contingent on successful negotiations for the purchase of the property from the Town.

Council Chair Richard Fralick and County Administrator Pete Rose said they were given an indication that the decision would be made in a meeting with the Town yesterday, but the exact language and provisions of the letter were not known.

Fralick said he understood some of the town’s concerns, but felt like the concerns should have been raised much earlier. “We have spent a lot of time and money moving in this direction, bargaining in good faith, doing due diligence and making commitments to upgrade the site. To have this happen at this point is extremely disappointing.”

San Juan County Public Works Director Jon Shannon underscored the challenge suddenly facing the County’s Solid Waste Utility. The state Department of Ecology had set a deadline just four month from now to complete improvements at the transfer station in order to have its waste handling permit renewed.

“We were 30 days away from going to bid on $1 million worth of work on the Sutton Road site,” Shannon said. “The first thing we will have to do is talk with the DOE and see whether they’ll give us time to do something on a different site.” If the County is not able to work out an arrangement to keep the San Juan transfer station open in the short run, Shannon said an interim step could be curbside trash pickup with the waste being ferried to the County’s transfer station on Orcas until other options are developed.

The Town-owned Sutton Road site was ranked lowest among the three sites deemed suitable for the construction of a new transfer station by the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and the Public Works Department when the Council selected it in April 2009. Council members cited the history of use of the land as a waste handling facility and a desire not to dedicate new land for that purpose.

The other two recommended sites included a County-owned site on Beaverton Valley Road and a privately owned tract on Daniel Lane. Also a possibility is the use of approximately 6 acres of county-owned land, known as the “Sundstrom property” adjacent to the Sutton road property. The Council is currently in the process of re-zoning that property.

Council Chair Fralick said today that he will try to schedule an emergency meeting of the Council as soon as possible to deal with the solid waste issues.

Among the reasons the Town Council listed for withdrawing from negotiations for the sale of the property was a concern over the “uncertainties of the future financial health of the (County) District and the Town’s possible need to perhaps fully utilitize our facility.”

The County Solid Waste Utility, which is almost entirely funded by volume-related fees for handling waste, is facing a $700,000 deficit due primarily to a rapid drop in the amount of construction-related waste generated on the island since the economic downturn.

In its final point, the Town’s letter said that after seeing years of delay in the County’s efforts to develop a joint Solid Waste Management Plan with the Town, it felt it should proceed to “develop our own, independent plan so that the Town can come into compliance with that State requirement.”

The Town is one of the County Solid Waste Utility’s largest customers. In order to operate a solid waste handling facility of its own, the town would need to obtain a permit through the County Health Department.