A crucial modernization project for Connecticut’s largest waste-to-energy plant, which has been delayed a number of times in recent years, now faces further uncertainty after municipalities that send garbage to the facility declined to commit to higher costs to help finance the redevelopment.
Under a term sheet signed late last year with Sacyr Rooney, which would lead the $330 million-plus modernization of Hartford’s Mid-Connecticut plant, the quasi-public Materials Innovation Recycling Authority (MIRA) was responsible for securing commitments from municipalities by June 1 for at least 650,000 tons of annual waste shipments. MIRA leaders and board members had been concerned about being able to hit that number, as the modernization project is projected to increase tipping fees from the mid-$80 per ton range to as high as $140 per ton, which would be an approximately 60% increase.
MIRA surveyed the approximately 50 municipalities the plant serves, ultimately concluding it couldn’t secure the commitments needed.
“Most all towns insist on the need for the project to have competitive pricing absent which they will be forced for fiscal reasons to consider utilization of less desirable disposal options,” including shipping garbage to out-of-state landfills, MIRA concluded in a March report outlining the survey results to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
While the odds appear long, the project is not technically dead, according to MIRA Executive Director Thomas Kirk.
“We’re not ending discussions, we’re not giving up on it,” Kirk said this week. “What’s clear is the towns do not have a stomach for a noncompetitive price option.”
The impact of the fee hikes would amount to several dollars per month per resident, Kirk said.
”And yet, it’s very very difficult to get a first selectman to add $100,000 to his budget,” he said.
The proposed project by Sacyr Rooney, a partnership between Florida-based Manhattan Construction and Spanish construction giant Sacyr, would modernize the waste incineration infrastructure and install newer systems and facilities that promise greater diversion rates of recyclables and organics from the waste stream, as well as higher capacity and greater efficiency. Plans also call for upgrades to MIRA’s nearby single-stream recycling facility, which could improve revenue from recovered materials and provide other benefits.
Wednesday’s abrupt end of the legislative session threw the project’s future into further doubt, as MIRA had hoped to secure a $330 million bonding commitment or some other form of public financing, such as a long-term power purchase agreement.
The aging plant suffered a turbine failure in late 2018, putting it out of commission for several months, as garbage piled up and had to be shipped out of state.
Sending waste to landfills in other states is what could be on the horizon for Connecticut, if the plant is not upgraded in the next few years, Kirk said.
Many towns would be able to secure tipping fees well below $140 per ton if they went that route, he said. However, it’s not certain if that could be a long-term solution, and it would also hurt smaller communities that have less garbage, and therefore less leverage to negotiate.
Connecticut waste collectors have already been sending garbage to other states. The Hartford Courant reported last year that nearly 1.3 million tons of household, commercial and construction waste were sent out of state, some as far as Ohio. That’s compared to 2.4 million tons of waste burned in-state.
MIRA has contracts through 2027 to take in municipal waste, and it will likely have to find out-of-state takers for it, should the project not materialize, Kirk said.
